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René Ostberg
René Ostberg

20 Followers

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Mar 7, 2021

Bakery Girl

On a bakery worker’s life, with a little input from Raymond Carver, David Thomson, Anthony Bourdain, and uh, Michelle Pfeiffer The longest relationship of my adult life has been with a local bakery: a Polish mom and pop in a Chicago suburb where I’ve been employed on and off since…

Baking

16 min read

Bakery Girl
Bakery Girl
Baking

16 min read


Jan 21, 2020

How Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery Built a Prairie and Lost My Ancestors

Of all the stories whirling around Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, the best one, meaning the most Chicago one, isn’t about ghosts or superstition but class. Hauntings and horror stories are a staple of cemeteries the world over, but only a city with a labor struggle pedigree like Chicago’s — site of…

Chicago

20 min read

How Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery Built a Prairie and Lost My Ancestors
How Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery Built a Prairie and Lost My Ancestors
Chicago

20 min read


Published in Memoir Mixtapes

·May 10, 2019

René Recommends “Birthday” by White Mystery

Big cities call for big voices to cut through all the noise, and birthdays call for big songs to celebrate being alive. Chicago birthday boys and girls are lucky then. …

Music

3 min read

“Birthday” by White Mystery
“Birthday” by White Mystery
Music

3 min read


Published in Memoir Mixtapes

·Apr 26, 2019

René Recommends: “Purple Heather” by Van Morrison

Van Morrison’s “Purple Heather” is a song about idyllic summer-end love, but I feel spring whenever I hear it. Maybe it’s because I associate spring with hope, and hope with love — new or past, fleeting or undying, idyllic or otherwise. It could also be some quality in Van’s voice…

Music

3 min read

“Purple Heather” by Van Morrison
“Purple Heather” by Van Morrison
Music

3 min read


Published in Memoir Mixtapes

·Feb 1, 2019

René Recommends: “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog

I did not have a happy end to 2018 or a promising start to 2019. On New Year’s Eve day, I found a feral kitten in a window well behind my parents’ house. It was struggling to get out, so I gave it a little help by lifting it out…

Rainbow Connection

4 min read

René Recommends: “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog
René Recommends: “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog
Rainbow Connection

4 min read


Published in Memoir Mixtapes

·Dec 21, 2018

René Recommends: “Belle” by Al Green

Life and listening to Al Green have taught me two things about the relationship between boundaries and love: romantic love too often comes down to transgressing boundaries, and self-love always comes down to reclaiming them. It’s all there in “Belle,” a song from Green’s 1977 watershed album of the same…

Music

3 min read

“Belle” by Al Green
“Belle” by Al Green
Music

3 min read


Published in Memoir Mixtapes

·Dec 11, 2018

René Recommends: “Party Train” by The Gap Band

When I was young, I had this notion that life would turn out to be a party. …

Music

3 min read

“Party Train” by The Gap Band
“Party Train” by The Gap Band
Music

3 min read


Oct 3, 2018

The Widow’s Quilt

When the Widow Quinn’s husband died, Mom was the only woman in town who didn’t join in the gossip, who didn’t whisper around that the Widow had surely killed her man, poisoned him or maybe smothered him in his sleep or even henpecked him to death. And when Widow Quinn…

Fiction

25 min read

The Widow’s Quilt
The Widow’s Quilt
Fiction

25 min read


Jan 5, 2016

Dad’s Honor Flight: A Father’s Second Homecoming from the Korean War

Dad’s first homecoming as a war veteran was in March 1953, two years to the month after he was drafted into the army for the Korean War. He arrived home to the U.S. at Seattle, to a port with a small crowd of civilians and a sign reading “Welcome Home…

Veterans

27 min read

Dad’s Honor Flight: A Father’s Second Homecoming from the Korean War
Dad’s Honor Flight: A Father’s Second Homecoming from the Korean War
Veterans

27 min read

René Ostberg

René Ostberg

20 Followers

I live in Illinois and write things. Find more of my stuff at www.reneostberg.com

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