Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

In SWALK, these series of letters describe the budding love and passion between my parents at the Highlanders’ Institute during the start of their relationship. To read the full version of the letters, check out SWALK (Interactive version).

First Letter

I won’t ‘transcribe’ this letter, as my father’s writing is quite legible. This might be the first letter my father wrote. I’m not sure. It sounds like they have had quite ‘an escapade’; my father seemed to be at risk of being reported AWO; and my mother was at risk of being locked out of her place of employment, “the Highlanders’ Institute”. My mother was a very ‘sensible’ woman, so this suggests young passion was riding high! In other words, like Romeo and Juliet, their passion overruled public censure! 

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My father’s seduction of my mother

I don’t want to delve into Greek mythology or Biblical history, but the rape of Leda by Zeus in the form of a swan, is mirrored in the Biblical story of the impregnation of the Virgin Mary by God the Father. He visited her clandestinely in the form of a Spirit, resulting in the birth of the son Jesus Christ, and ultimately, in the creation of the Christian world. Another story from Greek mythology is that of the rape of Princess Europa by the God Zeus, in the form of a bull, resulting in the creation of Europe, at least by name. 

My father seems to describe his seduction of my mother in the letter. However, he doesn’t carry out the act in the form of a swan, spirit or a bull, but in the form of a dog. At least he describes himself as ‘a dirty dog’. Gowever, this never resulted in a response from my mother (in the letters).

The seduction didn’t take place in Bethlehem, or on the island of Crete, but in Kelvin Park, Glasgow (also referred to in other letters). However, the Greek connection is not totally out of place; my mother’s name stems from the island of Rhodes (meaning ‘rose’) in Greece; my father Alexander was named after Alexander the Great, the Greek king, the ruler of one of the largest empires of the ancient world. 

The Harkness Family

However, this ‘seduction’ did not result in the creation of a new world order, but ultimately ‘a new family’. The Harkness family now has its few dozen members (some 80 years later) — not exactly a new ‘world’, but a new small ‘community’. Nevertheless, my father’s ‘empire’ stretches from continent to continent, as his offspring have settled on the American and European continents. This has resulted in the mingling of Scottish blood with that of English, Russian, Asian, Swedish, and Spanish blood. So in this sense, he has obeyed the command of the prime male impregnator, that is, God, “To be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, and go forth and multiply”.

Of course, I’m not saying my father violated my mother in Kelvin Park, but he liked to portray himself as a ‘dirty dog’, not a ‘dirty God’. Although the Dianne Keaton character in the 1973 Woody Allen film “Sleeper” pointed out that ‘God’ spelled backwards is ‘dog’. Of course, ‘dirty dogs’ do less harm than ‘dirty Gods’, but this is a discussion for another occasion.

In other words, he seems to be proud, yet remorseful, that he has ‘forced’ himself on her. In this context, it should be remembered that my father was 24 years old, and my mother only 19; so it was a question of ‘man and girl’.

Women’s Trap

Of course, my mother, like Mary, Leda and Europa, was perhaps a ‘willing victim’. In other words, the architect behind the seduction was perhaps my mother, but men like to feel ‘they are in control’. Thus, this explains my father’s depiction of himself as a ‘dirty dog’. In the politically correct 2020s, and due to the ‘Me Too Movement’, attitudes have changed, that is, ‘no means no’. To stretch a point, if Leda had said no to Zeus, and Mary had said no to God, then there would be no ‘modern world’ today.

Obviously, I am not defending this male-oriented version of world history, but just pointing out that values have changed. Certainly, many men will say that ‘no really means yes’! Women are caught in a kind of trap – being the desirable virgin, yet wanting to capture a man. Obviously, a virgin can’t say yes to any man! And, besides the chauvinist man is not necessarily attracted by a ‘yes’ – so called ‘cougars’. Needless to say, there are many Gigolo-like young boys that are attracted by ‘cougars’.

My mother would often say, “Your father was not an easy man to live with.” But I think this referred to his drinking rather than his sexual behaviour. Of course, his drinking could also result in ‘assaults’. But returning to the discussion of Zeus and Leda, and God and Mary, without these ‘assaults’, then I wouldn’t be here today; neither would his many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. (I haven’t made a count).    

The War

This letter is one of the few letters that makes a direct reference to the war. My father writes,

“I wish this confounded war was over and that you and I were together all the time instead of this uncertainty; but that’s a dull thought thinking of the war. Let’s think of something bright. Piggott, for instance, after work was finished tonight, he dragged me up the enormous mountain on the other side of the loch. Well, it’s not a mountain, but it’s a very large sized hill. It had its compensations. It gave me a very large appetite for my supper which I made good use of and made the cook pull a long face.”

At least I know why I suffer from verbal diarrhoea and verbal digressions. This sentence of my father’s is more than 70 words long with no punctuation (before I added them)! But still makes some kind of sense! 

Another point is that there is no mention of ‘the Germans’. It seems like my parents viewed the war as some kind of natural catastrophe as opposed to the ideological and political views presented by governments. 

Second Letter

My father mentions sending my mother some wool. She will knit him a jersey (as mentioned in my mother’s letters). He writes that he went to Dunoon and saw the picture “Fifth Avenue”. He remarks:

“Went to the pictures – the picture was ‘Fifth Avenue’ with Ginger Rodgers. I seen it already with you, I think in Glasgow in the Royal.”

In the letter my mother wrote in reply, she writes:

“I didn’t see Fifth Avenue at the Regal with you. It must have been some other girl you saw that film with, as I have never seen that picture at all.”

Third Letter

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The letter was probably written in the summer/autumn of 1940. This letter is embossed with the insignia of the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). Maybe my father got hold of some ‘government’ paper?

My father comments that he is “sleeping aft with the crew as my cabin is being white-painted”. He mentions ‘Betty’ and ‘Mrs. Campbell’. In other words, the letter suggests it was sent to my mother when she worked at the Highlanders’ Institute. Mrs. Campbell was the boss’s wife, and Betty was my mother’s friend who worked at the Institute. So it is likely that my father wrote the letter before their wedding in October, 1940. The letter is brief; my father is a little careful in his ‘profusions of love,’ so it might be guessed this was at an early stage in their relationship. 

Fourth Letter

On the page 8 of this Highlanders’ institute letter, my father seems to make a reference to seducing my mother. This seemed to happen in Kelvin Grove Park (Glasgow), most likely before they married.

“(…) how wonderful I am. You’re telling me you fell flat for me – it’s not the first time you have practically been thrown flat on your back by ‘yours truly’ – remember Kelvin Grove Park!”

In other words, he is alluding to the fact that they were intimate in Kelvin Grove Park some six years before. That is, this is another ‘flashback’, remembering ‘the good old days’. Of course, young couples without their own apartments are often forced into using the ‘bed of nature’. My father is certainly the humourist; he makes a kind of pun from ‘falling flat for somebody’ and ‘flat on your back.’ Of course, my mother was quite straight-laced, so he couldn’t go into explicit details, but only make couched suggestions. But he also does this in several other places in his letters – so it is not always easy to interpret with no knowledge of the context. 

Inspired by his own amatory memories, he asks my mother: “Do you peroxide your hair”? In other words, he is implying that she behaved like a ‘whore’ in the park. In the mid-twentieth century men tended to associate cigarette smoking and dyed blonde hair with ‘loose’ women. Of course, it is just stupid when he asks my mother if she is a blonde. But in the next sentence he talks about her sister Flora who was a peroxide blonde. In other letters he had also mentioned that Flora was a ‘flirt’. One wonders if my father wrote many of his letters while drinking ‘a wee dram of whisky’.

Taking into consideration that my mother’s mother (Morag) also had ‘men friends’ (who even fathered probably at least one child); the fact that my mother’s grandmother on the Isle of Eigg, Morag was also born illegitimate; it seems my father is perhaps questioning (implicitly), the sexual morals of the MacGillivaries and Campbells.

But he has got it all wrong – my mother, as mentioned, was pretty straight-laced, although she no doubt used her good looks to attract men, and had many boyfriends on the Isle of Eigg when she was a young girl, such as the MacKinnon boys, and Duncan Ferguson. In fact, I suspect it was rather the Harknesses (my father) who had a questionable morality.