Some things are just very unique to Langley.

The LaRue ladies are just as much a fixture to the city as the boy and the dog sculpture.

Virginia, Denise and Michele LaRue, mother and daughters, own adjacent shops on First Street in Langley and they have run those businesses successfully for more than 30 years.

This is not just a rarity in the business world, but the trio has also become a hidden tourist attraction.

“Locals bring people through town. We hear them talk: This is the mother’s shop and these are the daughters’ shops,” Michele laughed.

Big Sister, The Cottage and, of course, Virginia’s Antiques and Gifts and Virginia’s Too are run by the three women respectively.

The women have owned shops in Langley by different names and shapes, uninterrupted since the early 1970s.

“Ron Lind, the bookstore and I are the only ones who have been here and have done business on First Street since the beginning. And are still here,” Virginia said.

“Mom, I was here before you,” Michele teases.

This fact is discussed briefly, then ruled a technicality.

Virginia LaRue and her husband Travers moved to Langley in 1972 and opened a pipe and tobacco store.

“My husband was a pipe maker,” she said.

Virginia worked at the pipe shop, but when store space became available a few buildings down the road, she opened Virginia’s Antiques in the late 1970s.

At her antiques stores, she offers glassware, china, jewelry and other collectibles.

“I have antiques big and small,” she said.

The store is known to many as a treasure chest. But be warned — once you enter, it may take a while until you reemerge. It takes hours to sort through all the items displayed from floor to ceiling in the store.

Virginia is 86. Despite her age, she has no desire to retire. The work is still too much fun, she said.

Michele moved to Whidbey Island from Southern California in 1973 and opened a store. It was a few years before her mother ventured into business on her own.

Virginia had called Michele in California with some good news; a small store space had become vacant on First Street. And Michele had a special connection with this specific space.

When she had been a child, visiting relatives on Whidbey Island, she had loved the bead shop that was located there.

“Mom called and said the store was available and so we moved,” she said.

Michele and her husband opened the Crows Nest, a small shop on the second floor of a building on First Street.

Now in her early 20s, she got the chance to run the shop she remembered from her childhood. The couple sold an eclectic mix of things, plus antiques, and they also offered picture framing.

“It was a tiny little room,” Michele recalled. “It cost $50 a month and me and my husband lived and worked in there.”

Michele remembers the early days in Langley well. It was a fun time.

“We were lots of friends, lots of little businesses. The town was just awakening,” she said. “Lot’s of groovy little stores.”

In the 1980s, Michele and sister Denise started Sister, a women’s clothing store. In 1993 she opened Big Sister, a plus-size boutique.

Denise had followed her sister and mother to Langley in 1975. She, too, had found a small store space and shared it with a friend.

“It was $50 rent and we split it,” she laughed. They sold small antiques and textiles. Later she went into business with Michele.

Nowadays, she runs The Cottage, a boutique selling romantic European-style clothes, accessories, soaps and such.

After 31 years of business, she said she is still glad to see her family every day.

“I am fortunate to have my family next door,” Denise said.

Running a business has its challenges, but the LaRue women look back at three decades of business in Langley with mostly positive memories.

“It wasn’t hard back then,” Michele said.

“It sort of just happened,” she said. The women learned as they went along and adjusted as the businesses grew and demands changed.

The women said the secret of their success is their tight connection with the community.

“Langley has an amazing community,” Denise said.

“Every little business is a jewel in a crown,” she said.

The community supports the small businesses on First Street. Friends stop by to shop or just chat.

This interaction with the community is treasured by all three.

“I love meeting people every day,” Michele said. She said her family had the right characteristics to fit in with Langley and they love to mingle with people.

If you haven’t stopped by the stores in a while, now is a good time. The spring collections are arriving.

If that’s not draw enough — well, just stop by and catch up with what is new on Langley’s main shopping street.