By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO, Palisadian-Post Contributor The Palisades Village has a friendly, small-town feel. But look behind the cash register at neighborhood shops and you’ll find a cosmopolitan mix of business owners. Immigrants from around the world have established or bought local shops, restaurants and service businesses and developed their own style of entrepreneurship. Their origins are diverse, but these retailers raise common themes in interviews about their emigration. Most left home to seek a better life and have worked tirelessly to provide their children with the opportunities that most Palisadians can take for granted. Marriages that last decades are the rule, not the exception, even for those who spend the entire working day together. The importance of and reliance on family is crucial. One more thing these entrepreneurs share is goodwill toward their Palisades customers. Most went out of their way to talk about the personal connection they have with shoppers, to offer thanks, and to note how supportive their patrons have been during difficult times. Irena Potashnik seemed to sum up their sentiments when she said, ‘I’m so happy to stay in this village.’ SPECIAL MOMENTS 873 Via de la Paz From the time she was five years old, Amelia ‘Mely’ Travostino [Parmalee] told everyone she would never marry. Despite a lack of interest in a wedding of her own, she started a business in bridal design in Milan, Italy. Then, in 1973, Travostino met Tim Parmalee, an opera tenor from the Palisades studying music in Italy, and married him just nine months later. ‘To come to the United States for me was another world,’ says Mely, citing Americans’ frequent moves and life changes as just one of many cultural differences. But Mely believes that everything that has happened in her life, no matter how contrary to her original plans, is destiny, ‘written in the book,’ as she said. That includes her decision in 1985 to open Special Moments, a lingerie store with an emphasis on personal service. Mely still maintains her family home in Lago Maggiore and usually travels back to Italy at least once a year. EUROPEAN SHOE REPAIR 15200 Sunset, Suite 109 The oppressive Communist economy drove Boris and Helen Papikian to leave Armenia in 1988. Even as an orthodontist, Boris earned a salary from the government and wasn’t free to establish a truly private practice. With the help of his uncle, who lived in West Hollywood, they obtained visas for themselves, their 11-year-old son, Ruben, their eight-year-old daughter, Ripsime, and Boris’ parents. Boris worked first with his father, a shoemaker, and later bought European Shoe Repair on Sunset in 1992. Helen works by his side every day and sees the payoff of their hard work in the freedom and opportunities available to their children. The same options are no longer open to their countrymen. ‘Before, the Soviet Union wouldn’t let people go. Now, the U.S. won’t let people come,’ Helen says. The Papikians have always worked long days, but were lucky enough in their early years to have Boris’ parents to help with the children and the support of the local Armenian community in Glendale. Today, even though the children are grown and married, the entire family still gets together every Sunday. ‘It’s very important to keep your roots and family,’ says Helen, now a grandmother to her daughter’s 19-month-old daughter. TAJ PALACE INDIAN CUISINE 15200 Sunset, Suite 112 A generation younger than many of their Chamber of Commerce peers, Sukhwinder ‘Sunny’ Singh, 33, and his brother, Gurinder, 31, ‘Nick,’ have owned Taj Palace for more than five years. Their move to the U.S. from Punjab in 1995 was orchestrated by their parents. Their father, Joginder, came to America in the late 1970s to earn a better living. By the time his wife and children joined him, nearly all of their extended family were already in the U.S. Sunny and Nick seem completely assimilated into Western culture, until one learns that the family of seven, including their sister and her husband, lives together in Sunny’s North Hills’ home with his wife, Afsana. The brothers bought the restaurant to capitalize on the fact that their parents are both great chefs, and ‘worked non-stop,’ Sunny says. ‘I took off five years from the plan I had for [graduate education],’ Nick says, ‘in order to make the business a success.’ EURO TAILORING AND BOUTIQUE 843 Via de la Paz Two women from the Ukraine with no prior ties find themselves operating adjacent businesses on Via de la Paz. Irena Potashnik owns Euro Tailoring and Boutique, which backs up to Bella Solodkaya’s Spinning Yarns shop. Irena earned a living in Kiev as a costume designer. Her emigration was motivated by family ties in America, the prospect of better economic opportunities, and her own fears in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. She moved with her husband and mother-in-law in 1993 and spent a year learning English. Then she studied fashion design at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, adapting to Western pattern making and design. She bought the alterations business, originally on Monument, a decade ago. Bella’s family tried to leave the Ukraine in 1979, but was denied. Her job at a defense contractor may have played a part, or simply offered the government a good excuse for rejection. Ten years later, in a very different political climate, she and her husband reapplied and were allowed to leave the country with their six-year-old daughter, Alex. While Bella acknowledges that ‘the [American] dream is still a dream,’ the economic realities of her old life are hard to imagine. ‘Lines and lines of people would wait for the chance to buy two pounds of sugar,’ she says. Once the family was in the U.S., Jewish organizations helped with financial support and job placement, and Bella worked in a variety of clerical and management roles before buying the knitting business in 2004. This fall, Alex, 25, will start the final year of a graduate program in art history and museum administration at Boston University. NATURALLY! 15200 Sunset, Suite 105 Kayvan ‘Kevin’ Kayvanjah and Fatane ‘Faith’ Dabahani are double immigrants. In 1985, they moved to Sweden from Iran, following the Iranian Revolution. The Swedish government granted them citizenship quickly and many of their relatives remained, but the couple found the Scandinavian temperatures far too frigid. In 1991, they moved to California with their 10-year-old daughter Kiana, sponsored by Faith’s uncle. Because Iran was quite westernized under the shah’s rule, little was truly foreign about U.S. culture. ‘I grew up with American movies and TV,’ says Kevin, who watched ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘I Spy’ in translation. The fourth generation in a line of professionals working in corporate and government jobs, Kevin never expected to be an entrepreneur. But buying Naturally, a caf’ offering healthy smoothies, sandwiches and salads, has kept Kevin and Faith busy working side-by-side six days a week since 1992. The ‘best thing’ about coming to the U.S.? Kiana will complete a post-graduate degree in pharmacy science at UC San Diego next year.

Stoeckingers Celebrate 50 Years of Mutual Support

By ALYSSA BRICKLIN Palisadian-Post Intern   Julie and Jerry Stoeckinger will celebrate their 50th anniversary on Saturday, August 23 by renewing their vows at home before a small family gathering.   The Stoeckingers, residents of Pacific Palisades for 34 years, met through a Los Angeles Catholic Alumni Club when they were in their 20s. A year after meeting, they were married at the St. Paul the Apostle Church in Los Angeles. Jerry proposed while they were out on dinner on a date. ‘I planned it. But she didn’t!’ Jerry laughs.   While dating, Julie and Jerry enjoyed going to the movies, the theater, and out to eat. They had a large wedding with 250 guests, and held their reception at the Fox Hills Country Club. Their honeymoon was a road trip to Carmel and San Francisco.   Julie grew up in Los Angeles and attended Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Jerry hails from Indiana. After graduating from Purdue, he received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA. The Stoeckingers moved to the Palisades in 1974 after being displaced by the expansion of the airport in Westchester.   Jerry worked as an engineer for companies such as Lincoln Electric, while Julie taught elementary school at Hillcrest until their first child, Mark, was born. The couple also has a daughter, Lisa, and six grandchildren. When their children were growing up, the Stoeckingers enjoyed going on family camping trips every summer.   Julie tells the Palisadian-Post that the success of their marriage is based on mutual support and understanding. ‘A lot of it has to do with our faith,’ she says. The Stoekingers and their family are long-time members of Corpus Christi Church.   The couple turns light-hearted when fondly recalling their years together. ‘There’s a quote I heard once by Robert Preston, and I think it’s so true: ‘Marriage is a 70/30 proposition. I give 30 and my wife gives 70′,’ Julie laughs. ‘But truly, we really understand what each other needs.’

Kaori Tanegashima proved instrumental to establishing and/or embellishing Asian Studies programs at USC, UC Irvine, and East Los Angeles College. Her fight, as a Japanese immigrant, to overcome sexism and racism in academia makes for compelling drama in the fascinating memoir, ‘Daughter of a Gun,’ which the author and Palisadian will sign August 21, 7:30 p.m., at Village Books. ‘Every semester,’ writes the career educator, ‘my students, who come from many different countries, ask me, ‘What is your nationality?’ My standard short answer is, ‘I am Chinese by birth, Japanese by heritage’American by choice.’ As Japanese living in China before World War II, Tanegashima’s family enjoyed what the author calls an ‘idyllic life,’ living in harmony and geomancy with natives and fellow Japanese ex-patriots in Beijing. Her father was a successful executive with the Manchurian Railroad Company. The Tanegashimas welcomed into their home friends and strangers, such as Russian Jews fleeing Stalin’s pogroms. All that ended at the close of World War II. The Chinese evicted its Japanese residents, forcing the Tanegashima family to relocate to Japan. A confluence of complexities drove Tanegashima to leave the country. Her mother had died when Tanegashima was not even 10, and Tanegashima had spent her teens living in Tokyo school dormitories. ‘My first English teacher was from California,’ Tanegashima, 69, tells the Palisadian-Post from her Alphabet streets home. ‘He showed me slides. I was sold. I thought to myself, ‘I’m going there.’ I wanted to get out of [Japan] because I just didn’t fit in. Women being smart is not very acceptable. I knew I would fit better in this society. I had a stronger chance of succeeding here.’ In 1958, 19-year-old Tanegashima told her father that she’d be moving from Japan temporarily’and she never came back. Tanegashima settled in California, where she pursued a career in higher education while instructing teens: ‘Teaching [high school] in Watts and Hollywood in the turbulent late 1960s,’ Tanegashima writes, ‘[was] one of the most valuable experiences of my Americanization’My own life passing through Japanese public schools had been one of extreme discipline. I could not help resenting the casual disrespect and mischievous treatment American secondary teachers are used to.’ Tanegashima recounts in ‘Daughter,’ with soul-crushing detail, how race and gender hindered her application to teach college-level at USC when she met with one Dr. Thompson, chairman of USC’s Asian Studies: ‘Reclining in his chair with his legs resting on his desk and smoking a pipe, Dr. Thompson said between puffs, ‘Well, if I were you, I would go home and have children.” Fortunately, Dr. Meiko Han (Japanese and married to a Korean) replaced Thompson by fall semester. Tanegashima came aboard as her teaching assistant. ‘In Dr. Han, I had met the one person in America who would have the deepest and most lasting influence on my professional career,’ she writes. ‘She was a pioneer in Japanese language and the author of the first academically recognized Japanese language text books.’ Thompson loyalists ousted (and humiliated) Han, who spent two years suing USC for discrimination and won. But with Han’s departure came Tanegashima’s. Joining UCI in 1972, Tanegashima gazed out her office window and saw cows grazing on open land’not exactly the tony, upper-middle-class Orange County suburb Irvine has since become. Many Southern Californians may not realize that the incorporated city of Irvine, established December 28, 1971, is not even 37 years old. UC Irvine’s formative days coincide with those of Tanegashima, who battled, as a college educator, to create UCI’s Asian-American studies program. But when Tanegashima turned 33, her age lived up to what superstitious Japanese deem a year of calamity. She lost her teaching position in 1975 when UCI’s white hierarchy deemed the Asian program inconsequential. ‘For 10 years after my departure, no Asian language or culture courses were offered at UC Irvine although Asian enrollment kept increasing,’ she writes. ‘There were Asians on the board,’ Tanegashima tells the Post, ‘but they didn’t want to get involved because they didn’t want to lose their job. But 2,000 students petitioned to keep me, it was very touching. It was a very hard time. Mentally, I was at my lowest.’   Tanegashima weathered unemployment and her tenacious father, who, after failing to convince his adamant daughter to return to Japan, wrote her off as teppoo musume (‘a bullet that once it leaves the gun will never return’). ‘In Japan, it would be considered all but immoral for one single woman to occupy [an apartment] all by herself,’ Tanegashima says. ‘Don’t be deceived by the skyscrapers and technological advancement. Their [mentality toward career women] hasn’t changed. We still have a monarchy.’ With delightful prose, ‘Daughter of a Gun’ offers an immigrant’s story of survival and striving for the American dream against all obstacles (which, ironically, often include racism in a country that espouses multiculturalism). Such against-all-odds struggles, even as relatively recent as Tanegashima’s, unfortunately never disappear, as the sanguine Tanegashima’s memoir reminds us, sans bitterness. In 1978, Dr. Han’s husband had found Tanegashima a position at Tanegashima’s alma mater, East Los Angeles College (ELAC), to the chagrin of her dismissed Caucasian male predecessor. ‘When the semester opened, he refused to vacate his desk,’ she writes. In 1986, what seemed like d’j’ vu occurred when ELAC attempted to scrub its Asian Studies department. Tanegashima and her students protested and the program was spared. Interspersed with her travails were good times, such as in 1968, when those wanna-Beatles pop group The Monkees needed Japanese lessons before touring Asia. Tanegashima was summoned to their TV sitcom’s set. ‘I taught the four of them together, but then it was easier to instruct them one-to-one,’ Tanegashima says. Of the quartet, Peter Tork caught on quickest. ‘In fact, he’s the only one who continued [taking lessons].’ ‘Daughter’ describes her travels to Europe and Asia, which includes a brush with the Hoaren [aboriginal people of eastern Taiwan]. Tanegashima also details her personal relationships, including one with a younger student and her failed, problem-riddled first marriage (an antagonistic mother-in-law, her husband’s heart attack, a serious car accident). ‘It is sometimes suggested that traveling together is a way to test a relationship,’ Tanegashima writes. ‘We failed this test.’ Tanegashima has enjoyed better luck meeting the man who would become her second husband, Joel Busch, a political science professor also at ELAC. Busch had just emerged from a draining ordeal as his first wife succumbed to multiple sclerosis. ‘Daughter’ skillfully describes their awkward-yet-tender first dates, and the comedy of cultural differences between this Japanese firebrand and the German-American gentleman when the couple visited their respective countries of origin. ‘How did you manage to eat natto (a soybean-and-raw egg concoction)?’ she asks Busch in the book. ‘Easy,’ came the reply, ‘I hypnotized myself to think that I was eating peanut butter.’ Today, Tanegashima is a semester shy from retiring after teaching at ELAC for three decades. And the erstwhile Monterey Park resident loves Pacific Palisades. ‘My husband has lived here [since the 1960s],’ Tanegashima says. ‘I moved here about 17 years ago. We had our 17th wedding anniversary on August 4. ‘This is a wonderful place. I can walk everywhere. It’s a very safe and healthy atmosphere. A friend of mine calls it ‘Pacific Paradise.” Tanegashima will devote her retirement to translating ‘Daughter’ in Japanese and retrieving her long-neglected paint brushes. ‘I don’t expect my retirement to be boring,’ she says with understatement. Although Tanegashima never returned to teach at UCI, she ultimately won her battle when the university, unable to resist Irvine’s changing demographics, reinstituted Asian Studies: ‘It took them 10 years to replace me. Now they have so many teachers and it’s very successful, I hear. I feel vindicated.’ Tanegashima quotes her conservative father, who liked to employ a railroad metaphor, which, in retrospect, suits his trailblazing daughter: ‘The hardest thing is clearing the land for the rails. After that, it’s easy.’

Caitlin ‘Casey’ Adams, a resident of the Palisades since 1982, married Brady Binstadt in a fun- and sun-filled celebration at a relative’s home, Villa Verano, in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico on April 12, 2008. After the ceremony, ten singers serenaded and led the bride and bridegroom and 96 guests down 200 steps to the beach and along the surf’s edge to a seaside location for the reception. Casey is the daughter of Toby Adams Whitney and Lew Whitney. After attending Curtis School, Marlborough and Marymount high schools, Casey graduated from Boston College, where she majored in economics/minored in Spanish and later earned her masters in counseling psychology at the University of San Francisco. She is currently a bilingual intern at Family Service Agency of Marin working with traumatized children. Originally from Springfield, Illinois, Brady is the son of Dr. and Mrs. David Binstadt. Brady earned a bachelors degree in psychology/minor in economics from Miami University (OH). He is now regional director of Geographic Expeditions, a high-end adventure travel business headquartered in San F

Stephen L. Dunne, son of longtime Pacific Palisades residents Allen and Lois Dunne, was married to Lacey J. Calac, the daughter of Gregory and Laurie Calac of Auburn, on May 3 in Grass Valley, California. Stephen attended Corpus Christi School, Loyola High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Loyola Marymount University in 2000. He is employed by Jefferies & Co. in San Francisco, where he works in equity sales. Lacey graduated from UC San Diego in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in management science. She is director of investor relations for Artis Capital Management, a San Francisco-based technology hedge fund. After honeymooning in Turks and Caicos, the couple will reside in San Francisco.

Vanessa Kirsten Langridge, daughter of Sonja and Colin Langridge of Pacific Palisades, and Ashley Stephen Hoath, son of Vivien and Steven Hoath of Australia, were married on November 2 in Las Vegas. The bride attended St. Matthew’s Parish School and Marymount High School, and graduated from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland with a master’s degree in management and international relations. Vanessa is now working in business management. The bridegroom grew up in Sydney and works as a pattern-making engineer at his father’s company. Following their wedding, the couple honeymooned in Scotland and England. The couple resides in Sydney, Australia.