All Our Yesterdays Packs a Lot of the Past in Its Antique Shop
All Our Yesterdays in Pound Ridge, New York: Review - In between being educators for the last thirty years, Vida Barbo and her husband Robert, spent a great deal of time collecting and appreciating antiques. Over time, they amassed quite a collection of items from shows and auctions. Eventually they took that passion out on their own into the business of selling antiques at multi-shops and those same shows and auctions in Stamford, North Salem and New Canaan. Finally, says Ms. Barbo with the opening of "All Our Yesterdays" in Pound Ridge, New York, "We decided to consolidate and put everything together."Retired from the New York City school system, she says, "Now that I'm not working, I'm working." Getting her start, prior to opening "All our Yesterdays," came as a little girl with her father and uncle both being antique collectors.
In her Todays, she has a number of those old family items and still struggles with which pieces she's going to part with from her home. "If you go to my house, you might sit in a chair with a price tag on it," she says.
On the road with her husband, she loves the hunt for pieces and is confidant that what appeals to her will appeal to her customers. "I have a good eye," she says, and that usually means something unique and different from decades ago.
Mr. Barbo, who will soon be leaving behind his career as a school psychologist, has made the connections with customers all across New York and Connecticut. He knows their names and faces and can cross reference them to the pieces they've bought over the years. All accomplished with only the use of database in his mind, according to Ms. Barbo.
In turn, they keep coming back to him for more. "It's sort of like a following," says Ms. Barbo, "and hopefully they keep following."
All the way to Pound Ridge, she hopes. "It's such a nice, quiet, garden, type setting," she says of the little country blue house at 34 Westchester Avenue. Packing a lot into a little space since opening in March, they aim to keep the prices at a place where people can afford it.
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