I wanna be a forest ranger....again.

Never look through the memorabilia box when you hit a certain age.  

I did and ran into several "playbills" from theater productions - musicals mainly. I want to add right now that I never auditioned to be on stage; I was always in the orchestra pit or conducting but on occasion, when circumstance demanded, i got up on the stage.  Twice I was music director for a spoof operetta called "Little Mary Sunshine" and twice, when illness struck a cast member, I got into a Mountie uniform and sang my little heart out.  

I opened the memory box and there was one of the programs...and, well, my heart went to my throat with fear...I was transported back to one of the town opera houses along the Ohio River. We took that show - 3 nights only, get your tickets here - from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi River one summer;  the set went by truck and we went by barge boat. 10 weeks, 10 cities. After the second week I think, one of the Rangers really took ill and had to

leave so I would start the show in the orchestra pit and at the necessary times, amble on stage and sing and read some lines with all the finesse of a wooden Indian.  I haven't been that scared since.

Here is a synopsis of the second act and the ending chorus follows.

Act II

Mary holds a garden party featuring the Eastchester ladies and the Rangers. Retired General Oscar Fairfax shows up, bringing a box of gifts for the ladies. Taking command of the Rangers in Jim's absence, he directs the Rangers to depart, find Jim, and bring him back. Fairfax now has the ladies to himself. But his interest shifts to Mme. Ernestine when he meets her and learns they have something in common: in their youth, both spent happy days in Vienna.

Mary goes to her garden. Yellow Feather sneaks in, finds her there, ties her to a tree, and threatens to debase her. Jim returns just in time and wrests a knife from the villain. The Rangers, who have surrounded the Inn, capture Yellow Feather as he tries to escape.

The rest of the cast then emerges. Fairfax has good news: the courts have upheld Brown Bear's claim to the disputed land, a mere one-fourth of Colorado. The chief gives Mary the Inn's land and dedicates the rest for a national park, a place the Rangers can call home. In the finale, a miraculously reformed Yellow Feather reappears, waving a large American flag. Jim and Mary, Billy and Nancy, Oscar and Ernestine, and several Ranger-Eastchester couples seem headed for the altar.