Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

For the time being, we have reached the last of the photos, artefacts, documents, and items of memorabilia. I now put them all back in the Magical Memory Box and close the lid. You’re looking at me wondering, Is that it? Is this the whole of the “Boyhood Recollections” book he went on and on about? Yes and no. Yes, it’s the end of our exercise of using your imagination to revive your childlike wonder. No, I have more stories to tell. Only now, I expect you’ll be able to take them in just as well as you did during our exercise – this time without my help. 

The following stories will cover a period of a little less than ten years, involving childhood events, relationships, and lessons – the hard and the easy ones, and the sad, happy, and mischievous ones. 

At this point in time, both my parents have died, as have two of my five brothers; they will not be able to confirm or deny the other stories you will find here aynmore. In this context, one perhaps calls to mind the Latin phrase, De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, or, “Of the dead, say nothing but good,” as they are unable to justify themselves. 

Gavin, my younger brother, wasn’t born or was just a baby during most of my younger childhood and thus wouldn’t remember much (although he pretends he does!). I have little contact with my elder brother, Sandy, who lives in Pittsburgh, U.S. I’m also not sure he would remember an awful lot, nor would he perhaps be willing to dig up old memories. So the enjoyment of the following stories will mainly depend on my memories–the memories of my mother as told to me–her documents, artefacts, items of memorabilia and photos that she had collected reaching back to more than two hundred years.

More importantly, your enjoyment of the following stories will also depend upon your childlike wonder, hopefully sprinkled with a little adult cynicism, so you can take it all in. Who knows, maybe you’ll leave with a lesson or two, or if none, at least a laugh and a snicker from these tales. I hope you enjoy!

78 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1957/dec/02/welfare-foods-orange-juice Accessed 27 September 2021.