In coming weeks, visitors to Washington, D.C., who board a particular sightseeing bus may well be greeted by a tour hostess who will tell them about various points of interest—and then wind up by asking them to vote for her husband for Vice President of the U.S. Joan Mondale, 45, the Senator's quick-witted and sturdily self-possessed wife, works regularly for Washington Whirl-Around, a visitors' service operated by her friend Ellen Proxmire, wife of the Wisconsin Senator. "It's so much fun," says Mrs. Mondale. "They're all strangers I'm talking to, and that's what I've been doing all my political life. I am really prepared for this job."
The daughter of the chaplain at Macalester College (he is Presbyterian, while Mondale's father was a Methodist minister), Joan Adams was a freshman when Mondale was an upperclassman there. But, she says, he was such a "hotshot political star" that he never noticed her. They met on a blind date while he was attending law school at the University of Minnesota and became engaged 53 days later—a truly whirlwind courtship in view of the fact that Mondale was so involved at the time in state politics that he saw her only once a week.
A history and art major, Joan later worked in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. In 1972 she published Politics in Art, a book designed to show how artists deal with problems such as civil rights and poverty. For the past decade, she has served as a volunteer tour guide at the National Gallery of Art, and she began working as a professional guide with Mrs. Proxmire's outfit in 1974.
The extra cash is needed. The Senator makes only his regular salary of $44,600, plus some money for speaking appearances (his normal fee: $1,000). Like many other liberal politicians in Washington, Mondale sends his children to private schools. In Mondale's case, all of the schools are integrated. Son Teddy, 18, is an avid dirt-track motorcycle racer. Eleanor, 16, owns a palomino quarter horse named Sunny, and together they have won an impressive array of ribbons at horse shows. William, 14, is into football, tennis, wrestling and lacrosse.
The Mondales live in an unpretentious old house that is still partially unfurnished. They rent out a spare bedroom to a college student, and the family cannot afford a separate home back in Minnesota. Instead, they share a house in Afton with Joan's parents. About three weekends out of four, the Senator is away politicking, but Joan says she is used to it. "I have my own life, a separate life," she notes. "We've never had him at home."
The Mondales make the most of their time together, going off in the spring to ski at Vail (before they were married, she made him promise to learn) and every summer to fish at a primitive hunting camp on Lake Elsie, Ontario. At home in Washington, the Mondales live quietly—Joan has been known to shoo guests out of the house at 11:30 p.m. —and the Senator loves to preside over backyard barbecues. "He's a very good cook," Joan says, "and sometimes he bakes bread." Does she as well? "Me?" she asks in disbelief. "Fritz did not marry me to write his speeches or to cook."
Joan relishes her independence.