My brother’s high school science teacher stood at the pulpit of our church on Sunday and said to the congregation, “repent and return the thing that has been stolen.” My brother sunk lower in the pew and I gave him a sideways glance, while snickering silently to myself. He and I were the only two in the congregation that knew: he had stolen the totem pole from Las Plumas High School the week prior.

You see, my brother was in the unique position to be a student at both Oroville High School AND Las Plumas High School. These two schools were notorious high school rivals and had a healthy competition with one another in just about every aspect of high school life. While both in high school at the same time (we are basically Irish Twins), I elected to maintain my allegiance to OHS.

For reasons that are still unclear to me, on one Saturday night, my brother called me at home and told me I needed to meet him at the AM/PM Gas Station as soon as possible. So I quickly made an excuse to leave house and drive down to see what was up. When I arrived, I found him outside our beat up Ford 150 named “Thumper.” He pointed to the bed of the truck, and when I looked inside I found the red, white and blue painted totem pole of a Thunderbird laying in the back. Jon had stolen it from the LP quad and now he didn’t know what to do with it.

Because I am eternally an OHS Tiger, I suggested we take it to the OHS Varsity Basketball Coach of house, because where else would you hide such a marker of LPHS significance? We immediately drove to Dennis Burnham’s home and knocked on the door. At first he was confused: Why were two students knocking on his door late at night? Where they in trouble?

But it all became clear when we parted to reveal the coveted red, white, and blue painted totem pole. A smile lit up Burnham’s face and he told us he had the PERFECT location for it. The totem pole was immediately placed outside next to the pool and spent the next week as the guest of honor for pool parties and BBQ’s. Coaches, teachers, and OHS students all took photos of themselves with the item, while LPHS teachers and staff became more and more upset by the obvious theft of their beloved statue. While it was the best kept secret at LPHS, all of OHS knew that Burnham’s house was the place to be for the most coveted photo of our high school careers.

Hence we get to Sunday and the call for repentance by my brother’s science teacher. While we new instinctively that the call was to him, his teacher, thankfully, didn’t go so far as to call him out in such a public setting. We both knew it was time. After church that day we drove to Burnham’s home and collected the stolen totem. That night, he snuck back into the quad and placed the Thunderbird back in it’s rightful position. It was decorated with a bit of raw chicken—because everyone knows a thunder-chicken when they see one.

The totem was promptly locked in case thereafter. It lives there today. But we all know and remember the week it lived in Tiger County.