The year was 1958. Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, the U.S. had launched Explorer I, its first unmanned satellite and answer to Russia's Sputnik, Elvis was off to the Army, there was trouble in the Middle East (Lebanon to be specific, but what else is new?), and Ozzie and Harriet reigned as the ideal American family on the still relatively new medium of television.
That same year Costa Mesa saw the opening of its first very own high school when Costa Mesa High School opened its doors to incoming freshmen in September, 1958. It was kind of a novel approach in that about half of those freshmen would be upper classmen for all four of their years at Mesa High. The next year would see district lines drawn with the other half transferring to Newport Harbor High.
