h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can remember being scared out of my wits having my first swimming lesson. My dad had told me if I needed the toilet I HAD to get out and find the little girl's room. He said that if I had an accident and peed in the pool then a special dye in the water would turn the urine red and everyone would know what I had done. I know there was good reason for this what with the risk of cryptosporidiosis etc. but I still think it was a horrible thing to do. It only occurred to me when I started to say the same thing to my little boy who was learning to swim ...

Unfortunately, true. Most municipal pools in the US during the early 1960's were still afraid enough of polio and urine-born contaminants that they used chemicals reagent to ureic acid to "reveal" les pissoirs. There was nothing quite as terrifying as watching a growing cloud of deep red well up after a friend lost it in the pool. A couple of kids from back then still had the nickname "Pinkie" well after high-school graduation in the Seventies.

Lovely society for kids, no?