I had been assigned to the dye house. It was an incredible place, full of all sorts of odd goings on. The idea was simple, take huge rolls of cloth and run them through a dye range and collect the dyed cloth at the other end in a big box on wheels. The dye range itself was a very complex piece of machinary with its dye vats, chemical washes, steam, heat, and drying stages.
Basically, my job was to lend a hand wherever. Filling in while regular employees took breaks or vacation and, oh yeah, perform any activity that regular employees hated.
One night one of the color mixers was out and I found myself assigned to a dye range as a color mixer. After a few minutes of instruction I went to the drug room, collected all of the chemicals necessary to produce a lovely shade of bluejean blue and set about the task of mixing up the dye. This entailed loading the chemicals on a lift and climbing up a ladder to a small platform about 12 feet off the ground. There I placed the chemicals into a 5 foot high, 4 foot diameter stainless steel vat. I then turned on the water and the electric motor that would stir the mixture.
Well, I kinda overdid the water. The blue dye ran over the top of the vat onto the platform and reached a level about 2 inches deep before it started draining off. In my haste to get the situation under control, I slipped and fell down. At the time I was more concerned with the dye and the operation than anything else. It was only later that morning, (this was third shift midnight to 8 am) when i got home that I discovered that my lower body was dyed a lovely pale blue. It was weeks until that wore off and a very hot summer in long pants.