When I was in college I used to come home for the summer & Nassau Downs OTB wasn't there yet. The only NYC OTB location I knew back then was in Far Rockaway, right near the Nassau County border. I had to drive through the 5 townsarea and cross the county line. The biggest problem was finding a parking space. There was only on street parking. It was a typical OTB, old men hanging out,lots of smoke etc. I'd then go home and either listen to Pack at the track or the WCBS radio results.
When I 1st graduated college I stayed in the college town & they had put a Western Regional OTB in the adjoining city. I was working in a factory at night & I'd hang out at OTB during the day. Back then there were no race calls & we had to wait until the results came over the wire. When the machine started typing the results a few of us gathered by the window to see the result, where one OTB employee would write the result down on a large sheet to hang under the entry page on the wall. There was a mute man who always was there & he'd lean over the counter to see the results being transcribed and if it was a longshot he'd mutter "Big, big". The funiest story I got out of my days at that OTB is I had gotten laid off at the factory and they needed me to come in and work a shift. They tried calling the house I was living at & couldn't get me, so they sent someone to OTB to tell me to work that night.
