29/12/2025
The Ritual of "Doing the Step"
This practice was a deeply ingrained social ritual, done with pride and discipline every week (often on a Saturday morning). A gleaming step was a visible statement of the homeowner's self-respect and the family's dignity, demonstrating that even modest homes were well-maintained.
Key aspects included:
Tools and Materials: Women typically used a bucket of soapy water, a scrubbing brush, and a "donkey stone". Donkey stones were blocks made of pulverized stone, cement, and bleach powder, originally used in mills to clean greasy steps and provide a non-slip finish.
The Process: After wetting the stone or pavement, the donkey stone was rubbed over the surface, then smoothed out with a cloth to give a neat, colored finish (often white or brown).
Social Aspect: The chore was a communal event. Women would often gather while cleaning their steps, chatting, gossiping, and strengthening community bonds. There was an element of peer pressure, with neighbors taking pride in outdoing one another with the cleanliness of their front steps.
The tradition of "step-cleaning" has largely disappeared today due to changing social dynamics, modern conveniences, and the decline of heavy industry, but it remains a nostalgic memory for many who lived during that era.
