[Gordon Booth]

Elsan Blue- happy memories.
The first time I was a rally marshal for our caravan club we had a farmers field in Gisburn.
No site toilets so every caravan used its Elsan toilet all weekend-basically a bucket with a seat on and another bucket inside with Elsan in it.
One marshal dug a large hole at the bottom of the field to empty the toilets in. On the Sunday night as everyone left the other marshals asked me( the newbie) to tidy up the site and fill the hole etc.
It was a lovely night but very windy.
When I got round to filling the hole( now a big blue pond with various floating things) I realized how big it was and how much soil I was going to have to shovel.I was going to be there all night.
Right, I thought, big fit lad, big shovel, get stuck in.
I dug deep in the pile of soil, swung hard and sent a good load into the pond.
As I said it was a windy night and not being an expert at this -I was standing downwind!

As the soil flew up it flashed into my mind what I had just done and what was about to happen! It did.

The poo, paper etc soon washed off and I changed clothes but I still had the pond to fill in- that took a long while.
However, Elsan Blue is a very strong dye and word soon went round the offices the next day-'Come and see the blue boss'. I looked like an ancient Briton.
It took all week to get the blue off my face and I couldn't get near my wife for days.