Eric introduced each cast member one-by-one and gave accounts of the characters they played. He asked Rex Hagon to read a letter written by Graydon Gould aloud to the fans. This letter is pictured below.
Next, each of the ex-junior rangers took their turns at the podium with recollections of their time on the show.
Syme told us of her riding the ranch's horses and being thrown off; which didn't sit well with her mother, since Syme had polio. Syme also remembered a funny story about the episode with the bears. The bears were chained to a trailer's big tire. They actually ate right through the tires, upsetting the trailer as well as the entire cast and crew.
Rex recalled that getting the part of Pete was bittersweet. You see, taking the part meant he couldn't get his five year badge at the camp he had spent the previous four years at, called Camp Pinakwa.
Susan made it clear that the executive producer, Maxine Samuels, was a tough lady. Susie had wandered off up to the second floor of the studios to Maxine's office. She was playing around with some ink, and when she heard Maxine's footsteps she tried to wipe the ink off her hands, only to get them totally smudged over. Maxine gave her a stern look while Susie innocently tried to hide her hands.
Peter recounted how the forest fire scenes were done. A bunch of dead trees were lined up in rows and then set on fire, while the kids were asked to get up the nerve to sprint through them.
Ralph responded with tales of being forced by the crew to eat eggs. "Come on Ralph. Eat up your eggs." Ralph hated eggs and apparently milk as well.
Jesse Cohoon had a great story of being scolded by the director after he and Peter had wandered off set. They were found later out behind Uncle Raoul's place climbing cedar trees, hopping from tree to tree like squirrels.
Tom Harvey kept reminiscing about poetry and rivers, mountains and lakes. He mentioned that in the episode "Horse Doctor" he let Ralph (only 13 years old) drive the truck behind takes. Later he looked at Ralph and said, "Chub you're a bad boy for sticking that apple in my tailpipe!" We all got a good chuckle out of that one.
Vernon Chapman stood in the crowd. His two stories were taken from the episode "Aggie" in which he played Fred Stark, the local real estate broker. "I always loved to play the villain. In one scene they had me drive within inches of the camerman who was lying on the ground. When I drove past him the poor fellow was left ashen. In the other scene they had me on the marina's dock. The dock began to sink and I sank ignamoniously with it right into the river."
Tyler Zenon came in place of his father who had to direct a film in Boston. His tale involved one fan from Europe who wanted an autographed photo of Joe Two Rivers to put on his wall smack dab between Charlton Heston and Lawrence Olivier.
Eric Wrate was one of the show's editors. He was adamant that the fans recall the fact that the Forest Rangers was the first Canadian tv show shot in colour, and that we should be proud of it's production values.
Gary Flanagan, who appeared in the episode "Invaders" as one of the young punks Joe wrestled with, had some kind words as well.
