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After serving in the Korean War, Tom Armijo moved from a tiny town in New Mexico to Long Beach in the 1950s with the dream of finding a good job and buying a home for his growing family.
He found a modest two-bedroom on Baltic Avenue just west of the Los Angeles River in a blue-collar Westside neighborhood and went to work as a plumber for the city of Long Beach. He eventually was able to buy his parents a home on the same street, and then purchased another one just blocks away that he repaired and rented to his sister.