VALDOSTA — After hiding a live garter snake in his ninth grade teacher’s desk drawer, it was C. James Matuschka’s punishment that led him down the path of writing.

As a young boy, Matuschka enjoyed catching garter snakes. One day, while his teacher stepped out of the classroom, he placed the live garter snake in her desk.

Upon her return, she looked in her drawer, and to Matuschka’s surprise, she was deathly afraid of the slimy, crawly creature.

“She had red hair, and she turned as red as her hair and started screaming and out the door she went,” he said.

Once she composed herself and returned to her students, she told them they would all remain in class until the culprit stepped forward.

“So, I feel all these eyes on me, and so I got up and said, ‘I did it,’” he said.

For his punishment, Matuschka was told he had to write a short story or an article. Depending on how good it was, his teacher would decide whether he would pass or fail the course.

“What she did, she said, ‘You know, you can write, and you don’t even know it,’” he said. “That’s what she told me. She started me writing, so it’s pretty hard to forget that woman. She was a great teacher, she was. I didn’t have much sense at the time to know it.”

Now at the age of 80, Matuschka has published two books. “Beyond the Shadows: A Collection of Unusual Poems” was published in the United States in 1996. His poetry includes some satire, serious and comical works.

“It’s about life in general,” he said. “It’s not simple stuff because I haven’t lived a simple life.”

Writing poetry is a means of expressing his life and things he has encountered.

“I like satire because the world is pretty screwed up anyway, so I really enjoy satire more than anything,” he said. “Poetry is a labor of love; it’s not a way to make money.”

In 1998, Matuschka published “Alter Universe,” a

science fiction satire, out of Canada. Since then, the publisher has collapsed, and there are no more copies available.

He has also written three one-act plays, one entitled “The Consummation.”

“It’s about the last two people on the planet,” he said. “Consummation has eaten up civilization. There has to be something like an Armageddon, and it becomes acceptable.”

While traveling throughout the country, Matuschka published letters in the Rome News Tribune, newsletters in Arizona, and articles in the Dade County Sentinel. Most of his work related to government research.

“I write letters mostly,” he said. “My kind of research is actually on secret government. That’s the only thing I’ve been doing, CIA and stuff like that.”

Born in Milwaukee, Wis., Matuschka has traveled all over the country. Utah, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina are just some of the places he has lived.

After graduating from high school, Matuschka pursued a career as an artist, attending the Wisconsin Art Academy. While in school, he started writing again and published a few works.

“I think that’s the first writing I did outside the ninth grade,” he said.

While he planned to attend a fine arts school, his family urged him to attend the commercial arts school because they said he would not make a good living in fine arts.

“That isn’t where I should have gone,” he said.

Following completion of art school, Matuschka went to work for his father at a beverage distributing company out of Milwaukee.

Over the years, Matuschka has worked in a variety of career fields. He worked two years with the United States Postal Service and four years with the United States Army in publications and stock control as a civilian. During Vietnam, he worked at Fort McCoy, a training base in Wisconsin.

Other jobs he has had were building industrial ovens, working in beer distribution, assembly lines, and running burglar alarms. Currently, he does security work.

“I’ve done practically everything,” he said.

Of all the work Matuschka has done, one thing he wanted to do but never did was move to Hollywood to become involved in the movie business.  

“I wanted to go to Hollywood at one time,” he said. “I thought I could get in. I was married and couldn’t afford it.”

However, while living in the Western United States in the 1950s, he became skilled in quick draw with guns, becoming quite good at the sport.

“I shot off 10 boxes of 45s a week,” he said. “If you want to get good, it’s hard work. I just dropped it, but it was experience.”

While it has been a while since he has performed a quick draw, he had fun with the sport and has not lost his speed.

“I can still quick draw,” he said. “You can’t forget because you’ve got to work really hard at it.”

Being safe is highly important with quick draw if you want to keep all your toes, which Matuschka came close to shooting off one time.

Married for almost 25 years to his wife, Bette, the couple has lived in Valdosta for about two years.

He has one son, Mark, and two grandsons, Jason and Matt, who currently reside in Wisconsin.

During his free time, Matuschka cooks and cleans house.

“She’s stuck with me through everything, and now it’s my turn,” he said.

He also enjoys subscribing to nonprofit magazines and reading up on economics and history.

Matuschka continues to write because he wants to inform readers. He mainly focuses on uncovering military controversies and conspiracy theories.

“Well now, (I enjoy) mostly exposing things that people better find out pretty soon,” he said. “People should be better informed than they are. They have to care. (I’m trying to) get people aware of what’s going on.”

Matuschka finds writing to be an outlet, a way of expressing himself. While he plans to publish more books in the future, he is waiting for the right topic to spark his interest.

“I’m going to write another book, but I’m not sure what I’m going to write about,” he said. “I’m not satisfied with anything I see. I’m a lot more fussy now. I’m just not satisfied. I’ve got four things going, and I don’t like any of them. When I’m satisfied, I’ll write one.”

For now, Matuschka has advice for writers — travel and become cultured individuals.

“If you want to be a good writer, I would suggest you get around, you mix with a lot of people, you learn what life is about because that’s what writing is about, or at least that’s what writing ought to be (about),” he said. “You have to care about people; you have to care about your country.”