Steptoe has been with me for five years now. Made from blackthorn and a weighty bit of kit. I could probably do without Steptoe but I don’t want to. Before stroke, I always fancied the affectation of possessing a cane, and now I, genuinely, can. Steptoe gets a lot of positive remarks by people as I ramble along my merry way. Surprisingly from young kids, cool stick, your stick reminds me of Lord of the Rings, I like your stick et cetera. I joke that I ought to hand these youngsters a business card and tell them to get in touch in sixty years time. My future clientele as Steptoe is one of my handcrafted sticks. Steptoe becomes a talking piece, an easy way into a conversation with a stranger. I don’t need it for balance as my legs are fine, so there is no learned non-use from using it, but I do like it when I am standing still, for example, waiting in a queue. I can lean on it because when I am standing still for a prolonged period of time my vestibular system starts bobbing about like an apple in a barrel.
I don’t use Steptoe indoors or out in the back garden. A cane has many uses out and about though! The crook can be used to draw something afar nearer and the tip can be used to poke things. I often use it for this. If ever I were to be hassled by an aggressive dog or human, Steptoe would come to my aid and it is one hefty bit of wood. I have also used Steptoe to assist climbing uneven ground in the woods. I have used it to clear bracken and even help me across shallow streams. No, I won’t part ways with Steptoe now even though I, probably, can. I have become fond of it. Below are a few famous cane carriers … the first is Winston Churchill who took to using one after he had a stroke. And like my love of Lapsang Souchong, if it was good enough for Winnie, it is good enough for me.
Hello Steptoe, a great cane. I can see why you’re fond of him @Rups they are often used as fashion accessories so why not use one . I find mine comes in useful when I am not moving fast enough for others and they try and barge past. It’s a right little ankle nipper
What surprises me is the ten to thirteen year olds on their pushbikes who feel the desire to tell me they admire my stick. It’s a stick, a bit of wood, yet it conjures up something in their imagination that urges a vocal response to a complete stranger. I love it. Always happy to receive praise for old Steptoe, especially from the digital nomads who live much of their life online.
As for ankle tapping, aye, hasty people beware. One foul move trying to barge past may end up with a face plant, and no one wants that do they?
Lovely stick! My husband made me a thumbstick before I had my stroke, because we walked a lot in the countryside, and it’s an invaluable aid. Now I can’t walk, but hope to one day, and I already have the sticks. I have a metal stick from the rehab unit as well, which I do use but not competently.
@Rups Strange, I was like you and always fancied the use of a cane. I cannot believe I now need one sometimes. I loved all the old movies and used to think it was sophisticated to see them walking with a cane. What am I like? I do like the one you have, that’s a talking piece. Have a great day, Irene
Once I met a group of people who gathered at the same hotel every year to compare and admire sticks. Some avid stick makers, some collectors, all passionate about the beauty and utility of a well crafted stick. My instinctive reaction was to think “what an odd bunch”, but they’d settled in for the evening with a bottle of very good scotch which they offered to share with me. It would have been rude not to, of course, and as they showed me stick after stick I admit that I gradually became enchanted. I don’t think it was just the single malt at work - the craftsmanship, the form of the wood, the way that each supports its owner, I started to understand what the attraction was. There is a primal response to such items, harking back to our prehistoric ancestors using sticks as some of the earliest tools.
I have some sticks here at home, ultralight aluminium poles for trekking around mountains. Practical, but without soul. Maybe I need to seek out something more like Steptoe.
Here’s an interesting and informative page about homemade walking sticks which I found after an internet search.
enjoy !!
here’s a quote from the web page (there’s a whole lot more at the end of the link)
Stick making is the sort of thing you can do when you have a whole day to spend at it, or just few minutes when you have spare moments. Expensive tools are not necessary - though you can always spend money on them if you want to! If you are able to get out and cut your own sticks then it can take you into scenic countryside, often into hidden places not seen by the ‘normal’ visitors. You don’t need to be artistic to make sticks either - the only things I can draw are curtains - and my wife says I do that badly!
So if you fancy having a go at it, why not get a book on the subject, enrol for a stick making class or just get some bits and pieces and have a go - half the fun is in learning for yourself.
It is an artistic endeavour, it is a creation deserving of a name. Quite obviously it possesses magical properties. It is likely a force to be reckoned with.
It must not exist alone. Others need to be created.
There will always be a place for it.
Yep, kids love sticks including my own when they were that age. And we still have a few of the good sticks they picked up, they’ve come in useful over the years. Kids are a bit like dogs when out walking, they just have to pick up a stick. Whenever I’m out around school home time, I will always see one kid with a stick, usually boys but occasionally girls
Perhaps picking up a stick is a primal primate urge?
Sticks and stones are very collectable even accumulating great value.
Sticks, stones and hands go together.
Our first tools and building materials.
Prehistoric even.
However Birds with Beaks can also use them very skilfully, to open a shell, build a nest etc etc.
The Stroke Craftsperson, Stroke Philosopher, the Stroke Naturalist, the Stroke Archaeologist, the Stroke Intellectual, the Stroke Comedian, Stroke Seeker, what are you?
. I find mine comes in useful when I am not moving fast enough for others and they try and barge past. It’s a right little ankle nipper 
