The Chequers

The Chequers c1965
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At the age of 16 I remember picking cherries on the trees (still existing in the photo and just shown to the left of the picture) while being too embarrassed/shy to acknowledge the presence of my first "girlfriend", Valery, on her bike below.
The Chequers was my fathers local from the mid twenties until the mid eighties. He hardly missed an evening's visit during the whole of that time, so the Chequers became a rather "looming" object throughout my childhood, rather like a third (naughty) parent. But it did provide the odd Vimto and packet of Smith's crisps in the late forties/early fifties.