Cash Shirhall – Life Scout

“I like scouting because you get to learn about different kinds of stuff, like fire safety, fishing, welding, and history.” Cash Shirhall

Cash Shirhall is currently a Life Scout. It won’t be long until he gets to be an Eagle Scout, and that will happen this fall. Cash has been in the local scouting program for eight years and has earned fifty-eight badges in three and one-half years. Way to go, Cash!

Cash is fourteen years old, in the eight grade, and is a fourth generation resident of Seadrift. His family came to live in Seadrift in 1920! Cash’s grandfather, former County Commissioner Kenny Finster, was involved in Scouting until he was twenty-five years old. His dad, Greg Shirhall, lives in Evant, Texas and works for the U.S. Postal Service. Cash’s mom, Leslie Shirhall, has been teaching for twenty years and is one of the Seadrift School’s kindergarten teachers. His grandmother, Dwana Finster, has been in education for forty-five years. Cash stated, “What means a lot to me is family and friends. Family is important to me because they can help you through life. Friends can, too.”

Cash’s aspiration is to either be a rancher or a fishing guide. His hobbies are outdoor sports and watching documentaries about military history, civil war history, and Texas history.

He is a member of the Tivoli First Lutheran Church and likes to participate in the youth programs at Seadrift’s Methodist and Baptist churches. A favorite Bible verse of Cash’s is found in Psalms 38:17,22. It reads, “For I am about to fall” (verse 17) and “Come quickly to help me.” (verse 22)

He is the proud owner of a dog named “Smokey” and two sugar gliders named “Remington” and “Kye.” Sugar gliders are like flying squirrels.

The plants of Texas are dying.

In Texas, the number of invasive plants is slowly rising. These species can spread like wildfire and overpopulate, resulting in our native plants to rapidly decrease in numbers, which hurts the native ecosystem. Our community doesn’t even realize that the pretty flowers all around may actually be hurting the environment. A good example of one of the non-native plants that have invaded Texas is the Lantana Camara. A lot of places, including my front yard, are filled with these beautiful blush pink and yellow like sunshine flowers. What a pretty scene, when it rains through the night and you go outside in the morning to see the sunrise making the water on the leaves shimmer like diamonds. But a secret hides behind the pretty soft petals of the flower. It’s not supposed to be here. Ever since it came to our state, the native Texas Lantana Urticoides, with its fiery red and oranges, has been getting less and less.

Invasive species of plants can seriously damage the wildlife in Texas. Let’s say that there’s a wild rabbit that eats a certain type of plant that is native to Texas. If an invasive species comes and the number of the plants the rabbit eats drops, the population of the rabbit will also decrease, therefore endangering the species or even causing extinction. It’s also sad to see the beautiful lush plants of Texas die off at the hands, or well, roots of the non-native ones.

While some people might think that invasive plants are helpful because they can provide food for the animals or because they look pretty, I disagree strongly. I believe nothing good can come from these invasive plants, or animals for that matter, because they decrease biodiversity, which just means the variety of life in an ecosystem. They can harm that biodiversity by overpopulating until there’s not very many other plants.

I think that we need to save our native species, and you can help. One way you can help is by planting one of our native flowers in your yard; you can support Texas’ biodiversity and help keep some of them from going endangered or extinct. You, with your actions, can help save Texas.

When I was a child in Catholic school, Easter was taught to be a time of renewal, a time of resurrection; the light survives to fight the dark another day and hope is breathed back into the lungs of life.

However, with all due respect to both the holiday and my personal fate, what I really need to be blessed with the miracle of resurrection is my mobile phone.

I’m not sure how long it’s suffered. It’s only three years old and was never mishandled, mistreated, or abused, though it seems to have left this mortal world in quite a hurry, refusing to take a charge and throwing the entire process of my life up in the air.

‘Planned obsolescence’ is a cool sounding phrase the kids throw around, and my friends, that is how I feel about modern cell phones and their lifespans. Whether I paid forty dollars or four-hundred dollars on the device, and even if I treat it with delicate care like a priceless Faberge egg; it will inevitably fail sooner rather than later.

I mean I get it, this is how it goes now, hardly any of us venture to a ‘repair shop’ anymore unless it’s just to have a broken screen repaired. This is usually because we prefer the fastest and most convenient option of removing and replacing the broken device, and we tend to do it over, and over again.

I remember the early eighties VHS players. They were heavy and bulky, constructed of metal and thick plastic, and usually if something inside it broke I could get in there and fix it with a few pointers from the video rental store manager or being mechanically inclined. This is certainly not the way of today’s DVD and Blu-ray players which feel so light and flimsy out of the box I might as well have a frisbee match with them.

That doesn’t mean I want my mobile phone to be ten-thousand pounds in weight, or for it to have rust damage if there is a light sprinkle of rain, nor do I want to sound like a man steadily on his way to old age and befuddling children while talking about how landline phones were built to last. Good old ‘Ma Bell’ must be rolling in her grave.

It would be bad enough if it was just a phone but it’s everything today, from a Lyft dispatcher to a camera to a way to make appointments online…this is why they don’t care if the phone does not last long no matter how well you care for it, you WILL buy another one, you don’t just want one but you NEED one; a mobile phone is almost a prerequisite for modern life.

Which is fine, I’m all for a all in one handy dandy tool that is everything from an atlas to a flashlight, but can’t we get value for money spent over time or some loyalty for years of staying with our cell phone service provider?

So I’ll have to scrape a scratched barrel to replace it. I should get some more help from the Judas’ at my cell phone provider, but they know not what they do to their customer base.

Pastors Tim and Beverly Smith

Together husband and wife Pastors Tim and Beverly Smith are making an impact locally, and most recently in a much broader sense, in their church district. Not only have they faithfully served Seadrift’s Assembly of God church for twenty-nine years, but now they have taken on a new role. Beginning in January 2023 Pastor Tim Smith has become their church district’s Victoria Section presbyter. He was elected to a two-year term by local ministers in what is called the Victoria Section. He will serve sixteen churches and thirty-six ministers.

Commenting on his role as a presbyter, Pastor Tim Smith had this to say, “I am to serve the pastors and churches of the Victoria Section. This includes being a pastor to the ministers and a leadership resource to the churches. My goal is to see the churches succeed in their ministries. We are looking for opportunities to plant new churches in the Victoria Section, which is from Seadrift, over to Nixon, then to La Grange, and back down to Wharton.”

In describing his experience as a minister, Pastor Tim Smith shared these thoughts, “I’ve been in the ministry for thirty-eight years. I was ordained by the Assembly of God in 1989. I started as a staff minister at a small church in Victoria and then became the Assistant Pastor at the First Assembly of God church in Victoria. I served there until November 1993. I came to Seadrift in February 1994. The church was looking for a pastor and I came to fill in and I never left. The church has done very well in the twenty-nine years we have been here. I don’t foresee leaving here any time soon in the future.”

Staying right by Pastor Tim Smith’s side is his wife and Assistant Pastor Beverly Smith. They have been married almost forty-eight years, have three grown children, and six grandchildren. They both grew up in church and felt called at a young age to ministry. Over the years they have faithfully served together.

As they do each school year, Seadrift Masonic Lodge #1098  spoke to local first graders about the importance of caring for one’s teeth and presented them with teeth care packages.

Ms. Martinez’ Seadrift Elementary 1st Grade Class
(Photo taken on “Pajama Day”

Ms. Rabb’s Port O’Connor 1st Grade Class