Donkey Stone

[Caran]

Do you know what this is? Paul O'Grady mentioned it on tv, brought back memories from my childhood.
22:50 Thu 22nd Aug 2013

[maggiebee]

Can't remember my mum using a donkey stone although it probably had another name in Scotland. She used some kind of red polish on the front doorstep - maybe Cardinal? She also blackleaded the grate. Toilet paper was newspaper cut up into squares and threaded with string. Happy days, though I'm not sure I'd want to go back there.

[lozzer50]

i used to donkey stone my grandmas front step!

[Mosaic]

My maternal grandmother was from darkest Salford and there was considerable status attached to how well you 'did your front'. This would start with wiping down the paintwork and windows, then mopping the step and the pavement down to the kerb, then donkey-stoning the step and the window sill. Some extremists even donkey-stoned the pavement but if someone walked on it before it dried then it made a big mess.
Doubtless the bit about brasso-ing the tramlines is apocryphal, but it seems that in a world of dirt and deprivation these marks of supreme housewifery gave you your standing in the street.
And, of course, having clean net curtains.

[weecalf]

You needn,t ass me I've no idea

[Mosaic]

On the other hand my mother's generation moved to the suburbs. No donkey stone for them - but like Maggiebee describes, a big tin of cardinal red which was like sloppy shoe polish for doorsteps. As a child I used to all of our big square front porch with it's teracotta tiles and concrete surround in cardinal red.