Two Lutherans and a Communist: Dad's Story

Charles (Chuck) Legg was orphaned in Ohio and raised in a Tennessee orphanage, which he "talked about like it was from Oliver Twist." Once eighteen, Chuck joined the navy. He emerged with a strong body, a desire to move to Washington and enough money to begin a carpentering/roofing business. Chuck met Margaret, a Canadian laundry worker, and they married to begin a family.

Chuck took to communism like it was religion. During the 1930s, Chuck was highly involved with the communists. He worked as a security person and was personal friends with many of communism’s biggest names: Ivar Haglund, Will Geer and Burl Ives. My father notes, "In the thirties, you were stupid not to join the communists. Chuck only had a third-grade education. He didn’t want to feel inferior to other people – he wanted to be perceived as smart."

Chuck and Margaret’s son Arthur recalls being teased for wearing red to school and being forced to leaflet communist propaganda door to door. His father’s politics drove Arthur to drop out of high school and enter the military illegally at sixteen years old. War was romance for Arthur, who was shipped out to Honolulu with his two best buddies.

Selma’s parents were immigrants from Austria to Saskatchewan Canada. They were members of the German Lutheran church, seeing church as a source of community and fellowship. My father notes, "They would work their ass off in the fields and attend church on Sunday. It was their only time to see their neighbors and have a sense of community."

Selma was the youngest in a family of twenty-one children. Many of her brothers and sisters died during the Canadian flu epidemic before the family moved to Vashon Island, Washington. Selma began nurses training directly after high school.
Arthur and Selma met after Selma finished nursing school and Arthur finished his service in the Navy. They settled in High Point housing projects, an affordable housing area for GIs. In 1951, they had their first son, Bruce Legg. Once the family had outgrown the projects, they moved into a house on 35th Avenue in Seattle, Washington.

In 1959, the whole family was baptized at Calvary Lutheran Church. Bruce clearly remembers being baptized. Years later, LaVerne (Nancy’s mother) would present Bruce with a photograph of his baptism. His family’s baptism was an important part of Bruce’s life, after which Bruce recalls a “religious fever” overtaking the household: it seemed as though church was holding the family together. This was the beginning of a traumatic period of time for Bruce.

During 1960, Selma moved the family three times, had a new baby, and was prone to hysterical rages. Bruce recalls his mother’s screaming after a flowerpot broke. Meanwhile, "the water main began talking" to Arthur and he was admitted to a mental hospital. Bruce remembers his mother’s presence during 1960 but cannot conjure up an image of his father. The only thing he remembers is his father’s white bathrobe wrapped around a bodiless figure.

If Bruce wanted to attend church, he had to take the bus for an hour each way, which he did throughout his childhood and teenage years. He loved attending church, especially Sunday school and confirmation class. The only problem Bruce had was with the "one true faith” aspect. He often wondered how Christianity could be the “one true faith" if there were other faiths. How could he be certain of his faith’s truth?