Carnett: You might say the students had a lick of talent

Whenever I’m asked where I went to secondary school, I’m tempted to say Green Chip High School of Costa Mesa.

Green Chip High?

Yeah.

Do you recall America’s fascination with trading stamps in the late 1950s and early ‘60s? Remember the big rivals, S&H Green Stamps and Blue Chip Stamps? I recall that my mom was fond of Green Stamps but later became a Blue Chip loyalist.

We had partially filled stamp books in every corner of our household.

A customer making a purchase at a store would be given stamps in proportion to the size of his or her purchase. The stamps were then pasted into books, and the books could be taken to redemption centers and exchanged for valuable items — like tableware.

My mom was a trading-stamp queen. Our house was filled with every cheesy piece of redeemable merchandise you could imagine.

During the 1961-62 academic year, students at my school — Costa Mesa High — wrote and produced a musical comedy, “An Extraordinary Guy.” The show ran for one Thursday night dress rehearsal and a Friday night performance in late April in Orange Coast College’s 1,300-seat Robert B. Moore Theater.

After several weeks of work in the high school’s rehearsal rooms, we rehearsed for a week on the Moore stage. As our final guest dress rehearsal unfolded before a small but appreciative audience, we knew we had a gem.

The Friday performance was sold out, and folks had to be turned away. Media reviews were excellent.

We then hastily arranged a special encore performance for a Saturday evening in late May. That show also sold out.

The musical is about an American high school rife with student issues of the day (1962), like cliques, acne and angst. Alcohol, drugs and teen pregnancy went unmentioned because, frankly, they weren’t then on anybody’s radar screen.

Instead of transferable units, the high school in the show awarded its academic credits in the form of Green Chip stamps.

Hence, the school’s name.

Mesa High students wrote the script and the music and lyrics in the fall of 1961. The school mounted the production in the spring of ‘62, and it was produced by at least one other Southern California high school the following year.

I’m not sure if a copy of the original script still exists. My copy disappeared long ago. But as I recall, the original script was altered to some degree during rehearsals leading up to the first performance.

Who knows if an updated “final” script was ever compiled?

I was fortunate to land one of the show’s lead roles. I played “George,” a conceited, self-absorbed bully — and the most popular kid at Green Chip High — who made life miserable for the naïve and socially awkward “Herman” who, by the way, was a total dweeb.

I was perfect for George because he and I were polar opposites. I was naturally shy and more like the Herman character than George, but I savored the opportunity to skewer my school’s glitterati on stage. I shamelessly chewed the scenery.

By the end of the show, my character had received his comeuppance, and Herman was the new big man on campus.

The Green Chip High alma mater was written for the production by talented Costa Mesa High music students and sung by the entire cast during a poignant moment in the first act. Here are the lyrics as I recall them:

“Green Chip High School we love you / To thee we are always true. / Coupons in each class we’ve got / Evidence of knowledge sought.

“Each and every one of us / Is loyal, brave and true. / To the perforated edges, / To the terrible tasting glue.

“When we’re called to heaven’s door / When he adds the final score. / Angels will invite us in, / ‘Cause to Green Chip High we’ve been.”

I’ve remembered those words for over half a century! I’m not certain I can correctly recite my school’s actual alma mater.

JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.