For Russell

 

There are things you don’t want to say.

            So, it’s best to just come out and say it.

            Russell Streur has died.

            For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you know that Russell was a regular contributor to Junk Wax Jay. He was the guy who brought the knowledge and history to this blog, instead of the rantings and ravings of a lunatic that you generally get from me. I looked forward to whenever an email showed up from Russell, to see what he’d written, and also because I knew he’d class the blog up a bit.

            I knew Russell the way we know a lot of people these days, via the internet/social media/etc. Our relationship started over a decade ago with poetry. Russell ran an online journal called The Camel Saloon, which I was a regular contributor to, and a shorter poetry journal The Plum Tree Tavern, that specialized in shorter (think Haiku) poetry with an ecological bent. He did me the kindness of publishing an e-chapbook of my poetry. With Junk Wax Jay, it was nice to get the chance to return the favor to him, and get Russell’s sports card writing out to whomever found the blog.

            Russell was also a damned fine photographer.

            And from what I knew of him…a good man.

            Russell had been sick for a while. But we didn’t talk about that. Just the occasional, hope you’re doing well, etc. It’s hard to talk about illness. When my wife had breast cancer in 2014, I wanted to talk about anything but illness. I still don’t want to talk about illness. So, you talk about other things, like baseball, or baseball cards. I was glad when Russell reached out to me in early 2021, and asked if he could contribute. Back in the poetry days of Camel Saloon, I didn’t know he was a lifelong collector, because I hadn’t been back to collecting at the time. Through Junk Wax Jay, it was like getting to know Russell in a new way.

            In one email exchange he asked me for my physical address. Russell wanted to send me something. He knew I was (or well, I tried to be when money would allow it) a Henry Aaron collector.

            Russell sent me this.

            Remember when I used to moan and complain that highlights cards/league leader cards weren’t actual cards of a player?

            Yeah…well that stopped once Russell sent me this.

            Russell Streur wrote sixteen posts for the Junk Wax Jay blog, from the Negro League to Formula 1 Racing. From my view, they were all well-done, well-researched and written with a lot of love for the subject. With the loss of Russell, Junk Wax Jay is forever changed in a way that I haven’t even begun to conceive of. He was a big part of this blog. Though I always thanked Russell and talked about points in his posts, I wish I’d had the chance to tell him how much his posts mattered to me and to the blog.

            But life is sudden like that.

            We’d just exchanged our last set of emails just over two weeks ago.

            Anyway…we’ll get back to the business of Junk Wax Jay next week. For now, I’m going to leave links for five of Russell’s sixteen blog post. They are five (and boy was it hard to choose) favorites of mine. I hope you enjoy them if you haven’t read them before.

Easter Sunday 1987: Milwaukee County Stadium (April 2021)

Greetings from Forbes Field (September 2021)

Queen of Diamond: Effa Manley and the Negro National League Newwark Eagles (March 2022)

Collecting Milwaukee: 70 Years of Topps Milwaukee Baseball Cards (May 2022)

Greetings from Rickwood Field (May 2023)

 Thank you, Russell

Thanks for reading. Happy Collecting.