Homer: A Tornado Wrapped in Barbed Wire

Homer A Tornado Wrapped in Barbed Wire takes us into the life of an unsung hero and the hardships Homer and too many others faced during the first half of the 20th-Century: poverty, World War I, the Spanish Flu that killed more than fifty million people worldwide, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and World War II. He obviously was not the only person of that time in America deserving of the hero label; he was just the one I knew best. It was a time that ran over the weak and produced a generation of strong, tough, battle-scarred folks that dealt with more adversity than anyone deserved in one lifetime. Homer Eubanks was born in 1908 in Hamilton, Texas, and he died in 1963 in Tyler, Texas. He was a sharecropper's son. His journey through life was a trip on a very rocky road. He started it with no money, an eighth-grade education, eight siblings that loved him, and an inner strength that served him well in the face of huge challenges and moments of danger. This is a story about Homer, to be sure. However, it is also a story of a time in American history that too often left one alone to deal with the heartless obstacles that stood between him and a better life. It was a time when families pooled their meager assets, blood, sweat, and tears to help each other cope with economic stress and other angry circumstances that fought to hold them in the darkness as they strained to reach the light. People relied on the kindness and help of others as they clawed their ways in the direction of respectability and a modicum of success. Homer had the help of others, but it was his raw-boned, fierce effort that primarily got him into the greener pastures of life.