Have you ever watched a lottery drawing on TV? When the smiling woman watches the hopper filled with numbered balls flying around until one shoots up to make someone’s dream of monetary fortunes come true?

Well, this week, my brain feels like that hopper.

There’s a few things rattling around, waiting for a chance to get out. Last week, I had a call from a reader with a very good question. When the weather improved and the winds picked up, local fire departments were quick to remind locals of the high danger of burning because of the risk of a wildfire.

Some of this area’s firefighters were called to Centre County for a blaze of more than 700 acres. It was started, reports said, from a prescribed burn by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Now, I know we have some absolutely amazing volunteers in our local departments, but I’m sure they weren’t the only ones who noticed the hazardous conditions. Why was the DCNR burning that day?

I sent an email to the DCNR to ask. Here’s the answer in a nutshell, from DCNR spokesman Terry Brady, “They had a green light when they started, but then the winds picked up.”

We know how that goes. Remember the saying, “If you don’t like Bradford’s weather, wait five minutes?” There have been days, recently even, where it seems every season has happened.

Terry explained, too, that a larger prescribed burn that day in the Chambersburg area went off without a hitch. “They had a day picked when the weather was supposed to be ideal.”

Seems like Mother Nature had a plan of her own.

Now here’s where the “brain hopper” came in to that story. The reason I remembered to check with the DCNR about that fire? Someone used the toaster oven in the office breakroom, and must have overcooked their lunch. The smell of burnt toast permeated the building.

Which brings me to my next rattling thought — why is smell so closely associated with memory? I looked it up. There’s a scientific explanation using words like amygdala and hippocampus; I’ll just stick with it’s the way our brains are wired.

Think about a favorite childhood memory. The smell of cut grass takes me back to running through the yard barefoot, or skipping rope with the girl down the street.

Wood smoke reminds me of wintertime at home. While many hold a romanticized view of that smell, to me it’s a reminder of seemingly endless days of splitting, carrying and stacking wood to heat the house through the winter.

I was explaining to my daughter the other day why I have several different perfumes. One I wore many years ago on her Make A Wish adventure. I don’t wear it often; I wear it when I need to remember that happy time. Another I wore at Disney World years ago. Again, it brings back happy memories.

A perfume called Exclamation and the hairspray Aqua Net bring back memories of high school. Yes, it was the 80s.

I remember, too, the smell of the ink from the mimeograph machine. Each time the teacher would hand out a paper, the students would collectively sniff. The sound of that machine — chunk, chunk, chunk — churning out copies is pretty unforgettable too.

At The Era, we have a boiler and radiators for heating. Again, there’s a smell that many bring to mind easily.

And like many Bradfordians, I can’t smell the crude oil. When I leave town and come back after a week or so, I’ll get a whiff.

Funny, it smells like home.

(Schellhammer is the Era’s associate editor. She can be reached at marcie@bradfordera.com)