James G. ( Jim ) Speidel

after graduation i served a year as an inmate at Campbell College. (with a Broughton education i felt like i was back in the 10th grade...) so i ran away to be a musician and lost my deferment. got drafted in Sep '69 and did the army thing for several years. (loads of fun). got into the furniture business from "73 to "86 and made a ton of money. (spent it all on cars and ex wives). got into law enforcement for a while and got interested in making my own leather gear. next thing you know, people were buying the stuff right off my body and i found myself in the gunleather business. been at it ever since.
www.thebeltman.net
i turned 60 in 2009, (didn't everybody? ) and am frankly surprised to have lasted this long. too bad so many of us have passed away. i knew many of them well and attended several of the funerals. ( i still miss Margie Lou Hudson).
Bonnie and i bought some acres in the middle of nowhere,( chatham county ), and built a house and BIG leather shop in 2008. the world is spinning in greased grooves, ( at least for now ).
I sold my gun belt business in February 2016 and now thinking of going onto the GUITAR STRAP business....

i could tell you about the time Randy Bateman and i skipped for lunch and he ripped out the entire crotch of his pants climbing over the chain link fence by the athletic field. he had to waddle for the rest of the day. or the time Tony Page and i went to lunch in his corvair and almost got hit by a train on Atlantic ave.
BUT... i think you need to hear about J. WATSON HOLYFIELD dean of "boys" up in the bell tower (no bells, just the tower), with his binoculars and spotted me and a couple of guys smoking in the bushes on Peace st. we got called to the office and given our sentences. since this was my second offense i was given the next WEEK at home. i was so dismayed at the prospect of telling my parents this news that i punched the office door with my fist. unfortunately it was a cheap hollow core door and my fist went right through it. now i was stuck in it because of all the splinters jammed into my arm. janitors and maintenance people had to be called to get me out, (door removed and split down the middle etc,etc.) now they saw fit to tack on an ass whippin' when i returned, and i had to pay fifty dollars for the door. (yeah, like i had fifty bucks...)
when the "board of education" was applied to my posterior,(in the locker room in the gym), i took ELEVEN wacks which i believe was a Broughton record at the time, (my junior year). after that i had to return to geometry class and stand up in the back of the room,(much laughing), because i couldn't sit down. to this day i think this incident is the reason i have no butt to speak of... oh well.
(ironic footnote: two years later they had a DESIGNATED SMOKING AREA in the parking lot !!!! )