Happy Halloween Mr. Vice President

Yesterday I stopped by Kowalskis to pick up one more bag of Halloween candy. As I was going into the store, Vice President Walter Mondale was leaving. (By the way, you always address heads of state and other government officials by the highest office they ever held, even if they no longer hold it. For example, it's wrong to say "Mr. Mondale" or "Mr. Clinton" -- the appropriate address would be "Mr. Vice President" in the former case and "Mr. President" in the latter. It surprises me how many people don't know this. But I digress.) I know Vice President Mondale as I was his student last year, and so we greeted each other and spoke for a few minutes. A teenage employee of Kowalskis was carrying Vice President Mondale's grocery bag, and he stood to the side, waiting, as the Vice President and I spoke.

After I went in the store, I wished I would have looked closer at the grocery-carrier's face to see his reaction to my conversation with the Vice President. The clerk was a high school kid, probably counting the seconds until he could get the hell out of work and go smash some pumpkins or TP the mean girl's house. But, I wonder if he even realized he was carrying the groceries of the former Vice President of the United States.

I have always known who Walter Mondale is, and until yesterday, it never occurred to me that anyone in Minnesota wouldn't know enough about him to recognize him. But maybe that's because I was alive in the 80s, am a tried and true Minnesota liberal Democrat, come from a community of proud Norwegian-Minnesotans who love to call Mondale one of our own stock, and from a family that closely follows politics. I guess that's not everybody. I mean, would an average 16-year-old kid have any reason to recognize Walter Mondale when he walks into a store? I hope so. I hope that kid addressed him as "Mr. Vice President." I bet he didn't.

As a side note, it was Pavo's first run-in with a famous person. I'm glad it was a DFL legend and Minnesota celebrity. Pavo will always know to say "Mr. Vice President" should we again cross paths with Walter Mondale.

Disclaimer: I have not decided if I think there should be an exception to the appropriate ways to address heads of state if those heads of state are guilty of war crimes, habitually disregard the Constitution, and were never legitimately elected to office. My friend Angelo has taught his 3-year-old son a great joke. If someone is being mean or rude, the little kid says "He's a real dick...[pause] cheney." That's pretty funny.