A TIME AND A PLACE: THE INTRIGUING ANCESTRY OF WALTER MacDONALD

By Jon Stevenson

Follow the lives of Walter MacDonald and his offspring as they adventure around the globe. They are all ordinary people that have extraordinary experiences. Through interactions with their closest friends and acquaintances they do good, and sometimes bad, but always shape history in ways that you would never have imagined. Their story is told in a humorous account from one generation to the next and examines how the times they lived in made the world what it is today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tablo Publishing
• Release date: Sep 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781649699916

Book preview

In memory of my sister, Heather.

The most thoughtful person ever.

2nd October, 1977 - 3rd May, 2015

PROLOGUE

Where am I?

Walter woke with a feeling of confusion and insecurity. He didn’t know where he was. He was in a very dark place and it wasn’t home. The bed was far too comfortable to be home.

He usually led a simple and routine lifestyle. Every morning he woke up in the same place. He had no reason to be away from home at night. He had no friends to speak of, just some acquaintances, mostly from work. No family. Walter’s life was rather solitary. He found any divergence from normality a little confronting. He tried to lay calmly in the foreign bed and recall how he got there.

I’m at the shipyard. I stayed at the shipyard after work last night. The crew on the new ship gave me dinner and offered me a bed for the night.

He remembered that he had work to do on the new ship. After he finished, the friendly crewmen told him to stay the night. It was raining heavily outside and it was a long walk home. They even took into consideration his special dietary requirements. They were very kind. He could hear some of them above him, on the deck. They must have started work already. The noises were muffled by the layers of steel and wood that separated Walter from their source. He couldn’t make out any words or what was happening around him.

I have nothing to worry about. The room is dark, but I can open the door to let light in. I didn’t realise there were no windows when I went to sleep last night. I wonder what the time is?

Walter remembered. He was on a ship. The ship was due to depart for its maiden voyage that morning at eight a.m. sharp. By then he would have started work. It was just a short stroll across the yard. Much closer than the usual half-hour walk from home. He would clock on and begin another day with time to spare. The crew even said that he could have breakfast with them. There would be plenty of time to enjoy their hospitality again before he started another day at work. 

Now he only needed some light to check the time on his watch. Then he would get dressed and make his way to the galley. His eyes started to adjust to the darkness of his below-deck cabin. There was just a sliver of dim light protruding from the bottom of the door. Walter carefully walked across the room and felt for the handle. He tried to turn it, but the handle only moved an inch. The door wouldn’t open. Something on the other side was stopping him from getting out.

It’s alright. Stay calm, he told himself. The lantern is next to the door. Just light the lantern and you will see where you are.

He felt for the lantern. It was where he remembered it, hanging from a bracket that he had fitted to this vessel just a few weeks earlier. He remembered that there were matches in the drawer below the lantern. He fumbled around in the dark until he gripped the drawer handle, and inside the drawer, he felt a packet of matches. He struck one and put it to the lantern’s wick.

The wick won’t light. Why?

He nearly burned his fingers before he blew out the match and tried another one. Again, it wouldn’t light. He felt the wick and it was dry. The lantern was empty. It had run out of kerosene. Did he leave it on last night when he went to sleep? He was tired and out of his normal routine. Walter knew that he was prone to making mistakes, and they seemed to happen at inopportune moments.

Stay calm, Walter, he told himself.

He tried not to panic, but he wasn’t comfortable with the situation. If only he knew the time. That would put his mind at ease. He had no idea what was happening outside. But Walter usually woke at about six am. Surely he had plenty of time to get out of the room.

Another match. I’ll use the light from the match to see the time on my watch.

He struck a match, but it was difficult to see the time. He stared hard at his pocket watch and held his hands in various positions until he could make out what it said. This time he did burn his fingers, but he saw the time and burned fingers were the least of his concerns.

Five to eight! How did I sleep so long? I have to get out of here.

The absence of windows and a quiet shipyard allowed Walter to have a long and deep night’s sleep. But he needed to get out of his confinement. If he was able to hear sounds from outside, people out there should be able to hear him. Walter just needed to shout out and someone would come to free him.

As Walter realised what he had to do, his predicament became even more dire. The sudden sound of the engine engaging filled the room with a resonating noise. Walter could no longer hear voices from around him.

What were the sounds I heard before? Could one of them have been the sound of a shovel filling the boiler with coal? Walter wondered in panic.

As was often the case, Walter was running out of ideas. He banged on the door. He shouted at the top of his voice. He fumbled with the door handle again, but it was all in vain. There was little more that he could do.

Don’t tell me that I’ve done it again.

WALTER MacDONALD

1860s

Walter MacDonald strived to achieve mediocrity. He simply wanted to blend in and go about his business unnoticed. However, events always seemed to conspire in such a way to prevent this from happening, and poor Walter could never be an average person. 

His appearance may have been that of the quintessential Scot. He was lean, pale-skinned, with a scattering of freckles and a mop of red hair. Yet, that is where others of his ilk might like comparisons to end. Walter was a little dim-witted and accident-prone. He had tried his hand at many different jobs, and just as soon as he felt that he was making progress, he would make some silly mistake. This usually had disastrous consequences for him and those around him.

On his first day at a new job, Walter was shown around by one of his workmates.

Welcome to Temple Brickworks, Walter. I’m Jimmy, and Mr Carruthers asked me to give you the grand tour. I’ll show you what happens around here and get you started. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of things quickly.

Thank you, Jimmy. I’m all ears. Walter didn’t share Jimmy’s confidence. He knew that he had a habit of messing things up. So, he paid attention to Jimmy’s instructions. He didn’t want to muck things up on his first day.

Temple Brickworks has won the contract for the new sewer. We’ll supply the bricks for the tunnels they are building underneath our city.

Tunnels under Glasgow! Well, I never! He had lived his whole life within the city’s boundaries, and never once thought about what happened to his or anyone else's ablutions.

You better believe it, and the city is growing so the sewer system needs to grow too. That is where most of our bricks go. The process all starts in that pit over there. Jimmy pointed to a large hole in the ground. There was a wide field beside it with no development beyond the pit. There is clay in there and it extends for miles in that direction. The brickworks own all of that land and the clay underneath. There’s enough to produce millions of bricks. Who knows how many sewers they can build with all of that?

Walter was impressed and nodded in acknowledgement, waiting to hear what he had to do.

From the pit, you will wheel the clay up to the top of the hill next to it. You use those barrows and the pool operator will tell you what to do with each load. It’s back-breaking work, and that's what you’ll be doing today. There are other jobs that you’ll want to learn more about. I’ll explain the rest of the process. Follow me.

Walter followed Jimmy to the top of the hill where there were large ponds filled with murky water.

These pools have been filled with clay from the pit and water from those pumps. The water dissolves the clay. Any stones in the mixture will sink to the bottom of the pool. Do you see those sluice gates there? They have two latches holding them shut to keep the water in the pond. When the clay has dissolved, we open the gates and direct the water downhill through the channels into the smaller, lower ponds. We want to get all of the water and dissolved clay down to the next stage, but none of the stones.

At this point, Walter was concentrating his hardest to take in everything that he needed to know. He was glad that on his first day he only had to push a wheelbarrow. He was confident that he could do that without any mishap.

Jimmy continued, So the clay and water mixture flows down to the lower pools where we let it sit for a while. Remember, it is the clay that eventually makes the bricks. The stones are left in the top pools. They are waste and we shovel them out before a fresh batch of clay is wheeled up here. None of the stones can end up in the bricks. A stone in the kiln will cause a brick to explode when it is fired, and who knows how many other bricks will shatter when one of them goes off.

No stones go down the channel then. I think I’ve got that. Saying it out loud helped Walter remember things.

That’s right. Then we leave the lower pools to settle. The solids sink to the bottom and the water is left on top. When the clay has settled to the bottom, we can drain the water off. What is left is really sticky sludge. The sludge is pure clay. We want to take it out of the pond and let it weather in the open air. It is stacked over there.

Jimmy pointed to neat rows of rectangular prisms made of the earthen mixture that came from the lower ponds. They were covered by a layer of hessian that protected them from the rain. At this stage, water would destroy them. Beyond these rows were some sheds, and Jimmy was about to explain what happened in them.

The process was already confusing Walter, but he knew that he only had to push a wheelbarrow on his first day. He hoped that he would gradually learn the rest when he needed to.

When the clay has weathered, we put it into moulds to make it into the shape of a brick. Then they are called green bricks and they might look like bricks, but they aren’t hard yet. They have to dry a bit longer in the shed. We keep them dry and out of the rain. They have to remain in the right shape until they go in the kilns. Rain, or any other water, will ruin green bricks. If they got wet, we’d have to start all over again. So they wait in the sheds until they are ready to go into a kiln.

And I guess that the kilns are behind the sheds. Is that right? Walter could see the chimneys from his elevated view at the top of the hill.

You’re right! After the bricks have been fired, they are hard and ready for shipment. As I said, most of them will be used to build the sewer, but we also have contracts for buildings, bridges, churches, you name it. So, I hope that explains what we do here. Do you have any questions?

Well, if I do, I’ll be sure to ask for help. Today, I only need to push a wheelbarrow up that hill. Is that right? This was the part of the operation Walter seemed most confident with. He was a little apprehensive about further responsibility, even if Jimmy expected him to take it on.

Walter was very lucky to have a job at Temple Brickworks. The business was successful due to the modern operation they had put in place to manufacture bricks so close to the source of the primary ingredient. Ingeniously, the process was mainly driven by gravity. After the clay had been carted out of the pit and into the first ponds at the top of the hill, very little labour was required. Liquid flowed down from one pond to the next, and it was easy for the workforce to move the bricks downhill towards the kiln.

As well as that, the company paid their employees well, and with better than average conditions. Temple Brickworks partnered with the trade union to make a safe workplace for everyone. This principle was difficult to imagine in other businesses. You really were lucky if you found work at Temple Brickworks. But Walter hadn’t always been so lucky.

* * * * *

No one could tell you where Walter was born or who his parents were. As an infant, he arrived on the doorstep of St. Basil’s Orphanage and the sisters took him in. At the orphanage, life was hard for all of the orphans. The sisters provided them with food, shelter and an education, but not with love. Most orphans learnt to fend for themselves, and Walter didn’t form any close friendships in his childhood. At fourteen years of age, Walter left the orphanage and started work. Like the other orphans, he was separated from the group that he grew up with, and had no contact with anyone from the early stages of his life.

By the start of his adult life, he had never received a single gift from anyone. This didn’t seem very strange or even upsetting to Walter. He knew that other children in the orphanage didn’t receive gifts either. Walter didn’t even know when his birthday was. So how could he be given a birthday present?

He decided that he would treat himself to a gift when he earned his first pay packet. Walter bought himself the only luxury item that he would ever possess. He bought a silver pocket watch. He had a message engraved on the back. This was to remind himself of where he had come from and the steps he was going to make in life. Every day he read the message A time and a place. W inscribed on the back of his watch.

The reason for the inscription made sense to Walter. A watch tells the time and it helps people get to the places they need to be on time. It helps someone get to the right place at the right time!

Through necessity, Walter found work, but he never excelled at anything that he tried. In fact, he was often the cause of some catastrophe and had to find other employers because of his mistakes.

Due to the many short-term positions that Walter had held, and the unfortunate circumstances in which he usually finished up, Walter hadn’t kept any friends from his previous jobs. He was very much alone in the world. But one way or another, he always seemed to land on his feet, and he hoped that Temple Brickworks might be a long-term employer.

If only Walter had grown up with a nurturing family around him. One wonders how different things might have been. It is a terrible situation when a child has no mother or father. Walter had no parents to watch every milestone as he developed into a man. He didn’t receive any acknowledgement for his achievements and he had no father figure that he wanted to be like one day. How might things have been different for Walter?

Everyone has talents that can be developed with encouragement and mentoring. Would Walter have been a different person today if he hadn’t been raised in the orphanage? Might a father’s influence have changed the outcome? No one can answer these questions for sure. But, if Walter ever became a father, he certainly wanted a better childhood for his children.

What he couldn’t know was that it was impossible for him to give a son any kind of childhood. In the MacDonald clan, a relationship between father and son could never be taken for granted. There were forces at play that took certain possibilities away from the men in Walter’s bloodline. In blissful ignorance, Walter made plans for a future that would never happen.

* * * * *

For weeks, Walter pushed the barrow and declined the opportunity to take on a physically less demanding task. Finally, Jimmy insisted that he try another role in the production of bricks. It was company policy that all staff were proficient in different stages of the operation. This was for employee morale. Temple Brickworks wanted its staff to be happy at work as well as being multi-skilled. Walter had to step up and learn more about brickmaking. Jimmy showed him what to do.

Today, you will be telling other people where to put the clay. We need 25 full barrows in an empty pond. Then you close the sluice gate. Here, let me show you.

They both moved over to the gate that kept water and clay in the top pool. Behind the gate, there was a series of channels that directed the mixture of water and clay to the next pool when the time was right.

You see the two latches. You have to close them both. Left one and right one. Now the gate is secure. Then we fill it with water up to the line here.

Walter concentrated as hard as he could. What Jimmy was saying sounded so simple. He just hoped that he could do it as well as his supervisor.

When it's full of water, we leave it to dissolve the clay and we’ll come back to it later on.

Walter followed Jimmy all morning and repeated the process a few times. Then Jimmy said it was time for him to take over and do the job by himself in the afternoon.

Put that barrow there, thank you. Giving instructions to others was abnormal for Walter. However, he got used to it and started to enjoy himself. And your barrow over there. Very good.

Was that 17 barrow loads? I think it was 18. Okay, put that one in here. Thank you.

By some miracle, Walter managed to complete this task satisfactorily all afternoon. Nothing was going wrong. Nothing at all. It was finishing time and the last few barrows were being carted up the hill to fill another pond before the brickworks closed for the night.

Walter said good night to the other workmen as they left to go home. He only had to fill the pond with water and then he could go home too. By the time the final pond was ready, Temple Brickworks was eerily quiet. Only light from the manager’s window indicated that anyone else was still on site. Soon after Walter left the premises, the manager locked the gate, and the brickworks was still and silent until work started the next morning.

Walter slept well that night. To be given a little bit of responsibility at work had perked him up and he looked forward to another day at the brickworks. The next morning, he hoped that he would be given the same task as the day before.

As he walked to the brickworks, he was thinking about the process that he needed to go through. Jimmy helped him in the beginning but then Walter was trusted to perform the task on his own. He was again cheerful as he walked towards Temple Brickworks, and contemplated what challenges might lie ahead of him.

When Walter turned the last corner to approach work, he saw that the gates were still closed and that many of his workmates were standing outside in a group. This was unexpected, as the brickworks operated six days a week from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Walter was on time to start work and he wondered what was going on. When he joined the group, he noticed dismay on the faces of his colleagues.

What do you mean the site is flooded? one of the workmen asked the manager, Mr Curruthers. There wasn’t a drop of rain last night.

I can’t tell you how it got so wet. As soon as I know more, I’ll let you know. But there has been extensive damage done to our operation. The stacks of weathering clay have collapsed and water has damaged most of it. The water then flowed downhill into the drying sheds and the green bricks have been affected too. From there, a pile of muck has ended up in the kilns. They are full of it and we couldn’t use the kilns today, even if we had a green brick to put in them. It will be a while before things go back to normal.

So what’s going to happen? The men quickly processed what had happened to the site. Then, they wanted to know what would happen to them. They all depended on their income from the brickworks.

"We’re going to have to cancel some orders. There is no way we can produce the bricks ordered for the sewer tunnels. The other managers are going to try to negotiate a new delivery schedule. I hope the city of Glasgow will accept new terms. Otherwise, there won’t be many jobs left for any of us. 

In the meantime, there will be a skeleton crew to clean up the mess and get things going again. I’m afraid that most of you will have to wait before you come back to work. I don’t know who will be staying home and I don’t know how long it will be for.

So when are we going to find out? I’ve got mouths to feed. I need to know if I’ll have a job again and when.

That’s all that I know for now. I promise I will tell you more as soon as I find out.

With that, Mr Carruthers left the group to ponder their new circumstances. Initially, there had been a sense of curiosity and intrigue as the men discovered the closed gates at Temple Brickworks. The mood was shifting to anger.

As minutes passed, Walter began to feel somewhat uneasy about the crisis unfolding before him. He listened to some of the men become quite agitated and saw several fists raised in anger. It seemed that the group wanted to know who was to blame, and they were looking for some sort of retribution. It wasn’t long until Mr Carruthers returned to the angry mob.

We’ve had a closer inspection of the site and I can give you more information now. Apparently, some fool left a sluice gate partially closed last night. One of the latches hadn’t been secured and the other one held in place for a while. In the middle of the night, it gave way. That is the source of our flood. 

Mr Carruthers was as angry as the group of men in front of him. I’m sure you all want to know who is responsible. So do I. That won’t be hard to work out. The bosses are looking into it as I speak.

At night, there was not a single man at the brickworks to address the problem. The water poured through the channels into the lower ponds. Those ponds were already filled with water and clay. They overflowed and a mucky mixture spilled onto the weathering clay, causing tall stacks to collapse and fall over. The dirty liquid continued its gravity-inspired journey to the green bricks in the sheds at the bottom of the hill, causing them to topple too. The kilns weren’t operational and the business was going to lose a lot of money.

At this time, Walter decided to make a quiet and rapid departure from the group. He wasn’t gifted with enormous intellect. It would be fair to say that he had missed out terribly in this area. But he did realise that his normally jovial and friendly workmates wouldn’t be in their usual mood. It wouldn’t take long to figure out who was to blame for the open sluice gate. It was probably a good thing that, again, Walter hadn’t connected very closely with any of his workmates. None of them knew where to find him when he wasn’t at work.

That was the unfortunate end to Walter’s employment at the Temple Brickworks. He wasn’t required when the site opened again, and he had no further contact with anyone from the brickworks.

* * * * *

They say that you can’t keep a good man down. Nor can you keep Walter MacDonald down. Somehow, he always seemed to find a new job. After the brickworks, he worked on the train lines where he was responsible for setting three miles of track to the wrong gauge. Later on, he had a job as a chimney sweep and spent his first day stuck up a chimney. He was asked not to come back for a second day. From there, he worked for a shoemaker and produced 196 soles in a single day. This would have been a worthwhile achievement had they not all been size 17 and all been for left feet. He then worked with a baker, accidentally using sugar when he should have used flour. He was given a second chance after that. However, when he mixed up the raisins with a bin full of mice droppings, there was no third chance.

Sometimes Walter managed to keep a job for a few months, including his current job, at a shipyard. He was working as a boilermaker. The shipyard was situated on the River Clyde. It was a half-hour walk from Walter’s home to the shipyard. He lived in one of Glasgow’s newest suburbs, Shawlands. Shawlands was on the outskirts of town and it had lots of open spaces. Walter walked through one of Glasgow’s newest parks, Queen’s Park, on his way to work. It was very scenic and he enjoyed the way it changed through the seasons. The park was dedicated to Mary, Queen of Scots, and Glaswegians travelled there for weekend outings. Walter enjoyed the nice setting he lived in.

At the shipyard, Walter worked with some patient people who tried to help him as much as they could.

So which cutter should I use for this sheet of steel? Walter asked a colleague.

That’s not steel.

Oh, what is it then?

Copper. Remember, we fit copper flashing around the funnels. You can use the smaller snips for that one. Copper is softer than steel.

And I need to cut inside the circle to make sure it fits properly? Walter had done this a few times before, but still needed reminding.

No. Cut outside the circle. You can trim it when it’s fitted to the ship.

Thanks again. I’d be lost without you. Walter wasn’t exaggerating.

The people he worked with understood that he needed simple instructions and directions, and because of their patience, he was getting by at work.

Some managers wanted to replace him. However, his foreman, Mr Baird, took kindly to Walter right from the start. Thanks to Mr Baird, Walter stayed at the shipyard, where he was a team member on the latest project.

The shipyard was about to release its newest ship, a steel-hulled steamer. Most ships were steel-hulled these days, and Walter had been told by Mr Baird, that the skills he gained at the shipyards would hold him in good stead for the future.

Technology will either be the making of you, lad, or it will bring about your downfall, was the foreman’s warning to Walter. Working in a modern shipyard like this provides all sorts of benefits. You learn something new every day and that is how you stay ahead of the game.

Mr Baird said that the modern world was all about steel and technology. Steam power was at the cutting edge of modern technology. Mr Baird himself was very progressive in his thinking, and months earlier, he introduced Walter to one idea that was very modern indeed. The idea of vegetarianism.

Walter had only become a vegetarian since he started at the shipyards. Mr Baird introduced him to this new diet soon after he started working there. One day, he asked Walter if he would like to attend a meeting after work. 

New people are always welcome at the meeting, Walter. Why don’t you come and listen to the speakers? They can be very informative. They are always interesting to listen to.

Walter had absolutely nothing else to do after work and he liked to meet new people. So, he went with Mr Baird to the meeting.

What time are you leaving? Walter asked.

Find me at six. We’ll head off straight after work. It's a decent walk, but we’ll make it in time for the first speaker.

They made good time, and the two entered a hall with over a hundred seats facing a stage. There were just a few others in the hall when they arrived. However, it wasn’t long before most of the seats were full and the audience paid attention to the speakers who addressed the group from the stage.

Some of the speakers made references to things that Walter didn't quite understand. A rather bossy, short man named Francis Newman had come from Manchester to speak to the group, and he said, It occurs to me that certain grades of profession shouldn’t be allowed within our ranks. With selective admission, we can gain far greater support from government and other decision-makers, we can circulate our literature in more desirable circles, and at the same time, instruct the masses of the benefits of stricter feeding.

Walter thought that Mr Newman was a very clever man, but Mr Baird seemed to be upset by what he said. Mr Baird shook his head and commented to some of the others in the audience, who seemed to agree with Mr Baird and not with Mr Newman.

The meeting continued for hours. Some speakers talked about raw foods and others talked about associate members who ate poultry, whatever that was, and another speaker talked about Pythagoreans, who were vegetarians before vegetarians were called vegetarians.

It was all very confusing, but Walter tried his best to understand what was being said. Again Mr Newman spoke and this time Mr Baird seemed to agree with him. His message seemed to be all about abstinence from one thing or another. Walter was a little sketchy about the details as everyone seemed to use such big words at the meeting.

The meeting dragged on, and Walter wanted to stay until the end so he could get to know the members afterwards. He hoped he would make some friends. There had been so much talk about food and it was quite late. So, Walter was feeling extremely hungry. He knew that he hadn’t finished his lunch when he was at work. He pulled out a paper bag and started to eat the second half of his roast beef sandwich.

It was delicious. But Mr Baird shot him a look of disdain. Walter couldn’t understand why. It was after the meeting that vegetarianism was explained to him in simpler terms.

Walter learned that his roast beef sandwich had once been a living animal. He hadn’t realised that every roast beef sandwich he had eaten up to that point had been the result of the cruel killing of a cow. Cows didn’t deserve such a fate. And that wasn’t all. Other animals had been killed to put food on Walter’s plate. Chickens, pigs and sheep had been slain.

This saddened Walter and he decided that, from then on, he would only eat foods that grew from plants. Mr Baird, and some others at the meeting, told Walter that this would be normal practice in the future. It was a matter of time before the world accepted their principles and everyone would become vegetarian.

* * * * *

It was the day before the new ship’s maiden voyage. Walter had been asked to fit an extra railing in a stairwell that led to some storerooms and a cabin near the engine room. After months on the job, even someone of Walter’s ability had to be trusted to complete a task like this without assistance.

It was late when he finished the job and the shipyard was empty of people. There was no movement or sound. The only activity came from the new vessel. It was lit up and the crew was preparing to take to the sea the next morning. 

Are you here to fix the bannister in the stairs down to the storeroom? one of them asked Walter.

I’ve already fixed it. I’m ready to go home now. He climbed the stairs towards the deck. It was late and Walter would be the last to leave the shipyard.

I hope you haven’t got far to go. There’s a fair old storm brewing out there. She’ll be a wild night. Perhaps the seaman had the benefit of experience when it came to weather forecasting. Or perhaps he was just guessing. But his opinion carried weight with Walter who looked up the stairs in the direction he was about to walk towards.

It would be at least a half-hour walk for me. How do you know it will be stormy?

Firstly, I could smell it in the west wind earlier today, secondly, the sky had an ominous tone to it at dusk, and thirdly, I just saw outside and it's raining cats and dogs. The friendly chap smiled and gestured towards the west. It will be horrible out there tonight, but by morning it’ll pass and we’ll make good time when we leave. Eight a.m. on the dot. You can look outside if you want. But believe me, you’re better off here.

"Oh, I’ll take your word for it. But I have