It was the sweetest music Jose Baron ever heard.

Fifty years ago the fledgling East Union High band appeared at its first football game. “Hey, Come Look Me Over” was the first song the Lancer band ever performed in public.

“To me it was the most beautiful piece of music I ever heard,” Baron said in an interview 10 years ago prior to East Union’s 40th anniversary celebration. “Looking back, though, it probably was pretty weak.” 

Baron, who served as East Union’s first band instructor from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1992 to 2000, is once again leading a Lancer band.

This time around it will be alumni musicians who are still playing their instruments and want to join a reunion gig Sept. 23 to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.

EU band parent Gina Leonard — whose son Hunter is a senior in the Lancer drum line — is helping Baron organize alumni band members for the Lancer’s homecoming blowout. Practice nights are on three consecutive Wednesdays — Sept. 7, 14, and 21 — in the EU band room.

Additional information and downloadable music is on the East Union Lancer Band and Color Guard Facebook page or on the school’s website (mantecausd.net/high school/east-union). The four songs the alumni band will be playing are “Alma Mater”, “Big ‘C’”, “Fanfare – The Star Spangled Banner”, and “Illinois Loyalty.”

The Lancer band didn’t go down to the field for that first game. Instead they played from the bleachers.

They did get into marching competitions that first year even though they had no band uniforms. Baron, however, managed to round up 50 high school sweaters in Lancer red and blue.

“It was back when the girls had school sweaters and the guys had letterman jackets,” Baron recalled in 2006. “So we’d have a guy playing tuba wearing a sweater with the name ‘Danielle’ on the arm and maybe a guy playing drums with a sweater that read ‘Linda’.”

The school built way out of Manteca next to the onion field grew up under Baron’s watch.

“When I stepped onto the campus, I knew this was the last job I was going to have,” Baron said in 2006.

Baron helped start

East Union traditions

Baron, as Lancers girls basketball coach Ron Agostini said in an interview several years ago, “was East Union.” Baron was part of the group that picked the school colors and helped chose the school fight song.

“The tradition we have here, he’s one of the main contributors as to what East Union is all about,” Agostini said of Baron.

Baron had been teaching as a contract music instructor through the San Joaquin County office of Education for three years before landing the job at East Union High. That circuit sent him throughout the week in Lathrop, French Camp, Banta, Lammersville, and New Jerusalem.   Being hired at East Union High also gave him a rare opportunity to have some budding musicians for eight years as his French Camp and Lathrop students ultimately went to East Union High.  Among those that he counts as his eight-year students were David Langston, Jim McCutcheon, and Tony Agbayani. 

Baron said he was fortunate that when the East Union High program was launched that two things happened: The district divided the band equipment between Manteca High and East Union and that he started with 50 band students who were used to the expectations the community had in school music program thanks to Leroy Darling who was still teaching at Manteca High when East Union was launched. 

Baron spent 16 years as an activities director, part-time assistant to the principal, yearbook adviser, dean of students, and student council advisor between serving as band director during his 34-year career at EU that ended with his retirement in 2000.

The East Union band room is named in his honor. Baron was awarded the California Teachers Association’s Teacher of the Year award in 1998 and inducted into the Manteca Hall of Fame in 1999.

Baron graduated from Stockton College in 1961, earned a bachelor of music from the University of the Pacific in 1964, and a masters in education from California State University at Sacramento in 1974.

East Union plans series

of 50th anniversary events

Among the events planned for Sept. 23 when the alumni band will perform are:

uA homecoming parade complete with class floats, the East Union High marching band, the homecoming court and any alumni that wants to join takes place at 12:15 p.m.  The parade is assembling starting at the Northgate Park parking lot. The route takes it down Northgate Drive past Neil Hafley School, and the East Union High campus to the George McParland School. It will then double back and end at EU High were a BBQ luncheon will take place.

uFollowing the parade is the 50th homecoming rally. The king and prince will be crowned at that time.

uThen at 5 p.m. a big tailgate party is planned on the asphalt near Dino Cunial Stadium. It will feature food booths, other vendors and family friendly activities.

uThe junior varsity game against Lathrop High is at 5 p.m. with the varsity contest at 7 p.m.

uHalftime activities during the varsity game include the crowning of the queen and princess as well as class floats.

uAlumni are being invited to seat in sections delineating the year they graduated from East Union High. They will be introduced by class during halftime.

The first golden anniversary event takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 6, exactly 50 years to the day when the first bells rang at the East Union campus.

There will be an open forum discussion about East Union High over the years between current students and past principals over the years that have been invited to attend such as Dick Durham, Linda Frost and John Alba among others. The forum starts at 9:45 a.m. and it includes an audio visual presentation spanning the decades.

The East Union High Athletic Boosters are hosting a 50th anniversary social at Delicato Winery on Saturday, Sept. 17, starting at 6 p.m. The $25 tickets are available at the school office.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com