A Picture that paints my childhood

 

By Antonio Rubi, Cebu City, Philippines

This is a painting by Alexandre Benois painted in 1907 that shows a military parade in Russia under Emperor Paul I (r. 1796 – 1801). For me, the painting is very nostalgic for me, and brings back the classic childhood memories of mine.

For me, my childhood memories were very much classic, ranging from classical music like Mozart, Disney movies and books, independent non-Disney American hand drawn animation, and classical children’s books. For example, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker was one of my favorites, and I feel the Nutcracker and the old Christmas spirit in this painting. For me, this is the spirit of the Marvelous, meaning an old-fashioned childhood. This brings me back to the late 2000s to early 2010s where I grew up. Unlike many youths who succumb to anything bad like the K-pop and P-pop, I still have this nostalgia for everything classic, thanks to my mom and grandmother, who disciplined me in the old ways, even if sometimes I was exposed to the modern outside world.