1 I’l^iSplSW^FcMciis^ By: Deborah Caso With his face crinkled in the i familiar wide grin, eyes twinking and another quip about to spring forth from his lips, the Cambridge Springs farmer talks about his 222 acres on McClellan Street Extension and reflects, somewhat reticently at times, about his stint in the Army Air Corp, during World War II. Although he admits he is 58 years old, the jolly, amiable .“Bunk” Mathews, so dubbed by his Grandfather Crow, with his outdoors complexion Bunk Mathews <- i and quick wit, seems at least , , . ’ ten years younger. He works, sidered a good wage, alongside when it was:; as does many an area far- Mathews employs one helper necessary to hand milk the. mer, from sunup to past to care for his 80 head of dairy cows, he remembered.'^j sundown running his dairy cows, but otherwise runs the Without all the fancy t farm, and he readily admits farm by himself. gadgetry was farming lessi that the cost of farming today Before it became necessap^ complicated? Surely it was; is rapidly rising, as are all fur him to run the family less expensive, he said., other costs. Most equipment, farm, Mathews aspired to be However, “you can’t say you; he said, has doubled in cost in an engineer and enrolled in prefer it that way—it’s the last five years, and, he Alhance College. He had been evolution. laments, the modern helping out at the farm since Mathews and his wife, equipment is necessary to he was 18 and a senior in high Helen, whom he has known carrying on farming today, school,, milking the cows since the first grade in a oneHis biggest concern, and ‘ early in the morning and then room schoolhouse in Drakes the one that pushes his costs leaving for school. After a Mills, live in his grand­ skyward, is the fact that he series of heart attacks, his father’s house, built in 1840. sells his product wholesale father was unable to carry on It’s really three houses in and must buy everything the strenuous business of one, he explained. Many retail—a 40 percent dif- running the farm, so years ago, part of the house ference. Mathews took it over after he was a barn, but has since Mathews believes there returned from the war. been rebuilt many times. The should be less government Although once he had other house contains three sets of intervention in the farming aspirations, he doesn’t regret rafters that “even a tet can business. “That fellow in D.C. his years of hard, sometimes get through, he said, doesn’t know what’s going on back-breaking work on the Although they are out there,” in the fields, he farm and added that he currently in the process of stated good-naturedly. He prefers outdoor work; his job, redecorating the stately advocates letting the process he says, “has to be outdoors.” house, .Mathew^ remarked of supply and demand run the Although most days a total that it is solidly built that he crop business, along with of about 12 hours are spent on can hardly hear a milk truck crop control. “We’d be many farm related work, Mathews come up the drive when he’s times better off,” he stated, likes to be his own boss. He inside. The structure contains He added that all farmers credits his wife with helping five bedrooms and is big by in the country work together out tremendously on the today’s standards, he said, to forecast what any given farm, adding with a smile: To keep costs at a year will look like. “It’s been a full life with a minimum, they burn wood When Mathews-began with good wife.” arxl coal, which they haul his father’s farm back in the An interested mate, he themselves. They project early 40’s, he remembers that maintains, is a necessary they save $25 a ton by hauling milk cost’$1.75 per hundred, ingredient for a successful it themselves for the 60 to Now that price had escalated farming venture. Otherwise, 100-mile round trip, Mathews to $13 per hundred. In those “she can hold you back,” he stated. ■ days, $ 40 an hour was con- replied. His wife worked right They look ,forward to drilling a gas well on their property to make them really energy sufficient. Besides his farming, Mathews is a nut on nuts. A member of the Pennsylvania Nutgrowers Association,, he works with the nut trees he and his father planted which are now grown to 40 to, 60 feet tall. His interest in nuts could be extremely profitable, he said, as nuts are used the world over for food. tended. What do they talk about for the four-day celebration? War, of course, memories and improvements in todays Air Force. They tour air bases to view the latest equipment. “I probably had more interest in what went on than most men. I wanted to know what went on,” Mathews replied. At one such reunion, the group took a side trip to Hawaii and visited Pearl But perhaps the least- Harbor. The reminiscing known fact about the kindly “gets pretty deep,” he joked, farmer is his role in World long as there are two people.” Mathews doesn’t believe War II. He functioned as a the draft should ever have radio operator and gunner in a B-25 bomber. He received been stopped. “Eternal his radio training in Chicago vigilance is the price of after he was drafted in 1942 liberty,” he prophisizei The upon graduation from all-volunteer army is in­ Mathews Alliance-then a two-year competent, believes. “It never will work. college. Participating in raid after You get the deadbeats in dangerous air raid of enemy there who just want a free camps, Mathews escaped meal,” he charged. Does he foresee war? without any serious injuries. He points down to his knee “There are always going to and remarks: “I’ve got a be wars,” he predicted, “as piece of Germany right long as there are two people.” Mathews and, his wife have there.”’ . • •- ' While flying over 65 three sons froht ber previous Victor missions over Italy, Southern marriage, France and the Balkans, he Kwiatkowski, a contractor remembered, sure there was from Edinboro, Vernon, a danger, but, with eyes teacher in central Michigan lowered, he declined to speak and Vincent, a pharmacist at about the death of fellow Corry General Hospital. They enjoy visits from their three fliers. “You learned to pray. grandchildren. At their When you come home, you home, they have at least 25 ■ don’t shoot ducks and geese,” bushels of toys for the tots. he said simply. All he would Although Mathews sees the say was: “You couldn’t hide area remaining rural, he is up there. There were no prepared for the growth of subdivisions and the resulting windows and it was cold.’ “When they said go home, influx of people. “I don’t want you just said, when,” he to be squeezed,” he cautioned, however. reflected. He works every day, in­ After his year overseas tour, he was .sent to ptjorida to cluding weekends, but has gradually sold parts of the fly training missions. Each year Mathews travels family parcel of land off, as to different parts of the the work becames harder. country to be united with “As you get older, you wear s fellows from the 57th bomb out quicker.”' wing. He has been attoiding With another saying the functions for the last ten springing to his lips, Mathews years. Last year in San quipped: “Our wants are Diego, some 600 people at- many, our needs are few.”