We returned from the Saratoga Race Course down $11, but up two Sungold Kiwis. The deficit was acceptable, we aren’t big betters — so losses are just the cost of a day’s recreation. As newlyweds, we would allot $10 for wagering and could only buy food if we actually won. And although our current budget isn’t so tight, old habits die hard so our bets are small. I’ve been mocked a few times by true gamblers as I get excited when my 10-cent Superfecta comes in, paying out a whopping $21. Sure, it’s not a jackpot, but for me, actually winning anything is akin to the unexpected joy of getting something for nothing.

Which brings me to the biggest excitement of the day — the kiwis! Sweet, yellow, refreshing kiwis that were pressed into our hands whenever we passed the vendor’s booth. This unexpected gift is apparently also a nutritional rockstar. So no matter what happened at the betting window, we were winners. We ate two cold kiwis on that hot afternoon, and brought home two to our daughter, Phoebe.

Phoebe met the gift with teenage skepticism.

“Why were they giving out fruit at the track?”

“Not the track itself, a vendor. It’s like advertising,” I answered.

“Still, it seems pretty sketchy to me,” Phoebe countered.

At that point I could have presented an educational lecture about marketing, and the Principle of Reciprocity — in which people who are given free samples are far more likely to buy the product in the future.

Instead I read her body language and offered, “Sketchy? Sketchy is the creepy white van casing a neighborhood. This is a fruit,” as I sliced the kiwi.

Smirking, she gobbled it down, then asked for the other.

This teenage disdain, followed by guiltless enjoyment of the booty shouldn’t be foreign to me. As my mother just reminded me, I was that kid. Despite my youthful disdain, I was once the recipient of the greatest freebie Kay Gardner ever brought home.

It was the era of radio contests, where local businesses would advertise by providing prizes to radio listeners. WGY was the station of choice in our house and they promoted daily contests to the radio audience. There was always a slight “price” to pay: an answer to a trivia question, a punchline to a joke — that sort of thing. In this case, if the caller sang a few bars of “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” they would win tickets to Proctor’s Theater’s performance of “Gigi.”

It took sheer luck to be the correct caller. Frantic rotary dialing, hanging up, then dialing again. The singing? Fortunately, carrying a tune wasn’t a requirement, and probably, in retrospect, wasn’t preferred. As luck would have it, my mother was the winner that day. Somehow I survived the multiple replayings of her off-key call-in which included her full name. How embarrassing: my mother had warbled to a radio audience stretching from New York City to Vermont, and everyone knew it was her. Worse yet, they could connect it to me.

But the prize? Oh, I had no issues accompanying my mom and enjoying the show. It is, in fact, one of my favorite teenage memories. A newly renovated theater, a touring Broadway company, seats in the front row of the balcony — not only was the night fantastic, it was free.

I know I’m not the only one who loves free stuff, no matter how small or how grand. In fact, the average American household contains 32 promotional items. My husband doubted that number until I held up a pen from an insurance company and pointed out he was drinking from a Yankee’s souvenir cup.

Add to that list a XXXL lime green t-shirt advertising a sanitation company. This monstrosity was the result of a t-shirt cannon at a minor league ball game. Did it matter that it was too big for the 40-pound recipient or that it was ugly? No, because at the moment my kid received a prize that no one else in the stadium had. In the midst of waving arms and cacophony of calls from the stands, she was a winner. After all, like my meager bets, sometimes it isn’t the prize that matters, it’s just the joy of the win.

We will be heading to the track one more time this summer. Will my horses pay off? I don’t know. Will there be a give away? I can only hope.

If history is any indication we will have an enjoyable day, and come home a few dollars poorer. For us, it will be the price of entertainment. Others will judge it as money wasted. As Will Rogers once said: “You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.”