I'm blowed if I know how people write books and recall exact details of things that happened in their childhood or distant past!

I was 12 years old when the TAB began operating in Victoria (1961). I had my first illegal bet with them two years later. The woman asked me if I was 18, I said yes, she gave me a funny look - and then wrote out my ticket!

That's right, she WROTE out my ticket! That got me thinking, and that's when I realised my memories of my youth are so foggy. I can remember you had nothing to fill in, you went to the window and verbally gave your bet to the TAB clerk who wrote it out in a pad of betting tickets which had a piece of carbon paper to record the TAB's record of the transaction. Carbon paper!!!
Pretty sure you had to express your wager in units not money. A unit was five shillings. How on earth did the TAB work out the dividends in those days? Was there a delay after the race before they announced the dividends? I think there was but I may be wrong? There would have had to have been, surely.

I can't remember what the TAB sign looked like in those first days. I'm sure it's different now, it's probably had several changes.

Mum and Dad were keen "five bob punters" and had the radio on 3UZ from early doors right through to after the last race, when Bert Bryant would repeat the placings, dividends and starting prices for each race. 3DB, Bill Collins, also covered the races. So did 3LO, Joe Brown! In Melbourne, at least, you had the choice of THREE radio broadcasts of the one race. Unbelievable. Haha I can remember Dad twisting the dial frantically between stations whenever one of his bets was involved in a photo finish. I remember Ken "London to a Brick" Howard covering the Sydney races for 3UZ.

Maybe some of you punters of a similar vintage to me have a better recollection about some of the things I'm not sure about.

Boy, haven't things changed!