Or a Vegetarian : Second Lady’s Role Not for a Bush-Leaguer

Vice President George Bush won’t eat cauliflower. Or Brussels sprouts.

Barbara Pierce Bush, the vice president’s wife of 41 years, revealed these tidbits from “the life of the wife of the vice president” at a breakfast in Irvine on Monday for 500 Republicans.

The vice president’s dislike for vegetables came up as Mrs. Bush spoke of the 145 or so letters she receives each week and then entertained the crowd by reading a sample of her favorites.

“Dear Mrs. Bush, would you please send me the vice president’s favorite recipes? Never mind the vegetables,” one fan wrote.

“They obviously knew George Bush,” Mrs. Bush said. “The day he was 60, he said to me: ‘I am never going to eat broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower or cabbage again.’ And he hasn’t!”

Then there was the letter noting that Mrs. Bush had been seated next to Prince Charles at a White House dinner. “Did you almost swoon?” the writer wondered.

Swoon, she did not, the vice president’s wife said firmly.

Better Dressed, Politer

“The young prince was about the age of one of our four boys,” said Mrs. Bush, who at 61 also boasts a daughter, two grandchildren and was named 1984’s National Outstanding Mother of the Year. “He’s just better dressed. And considerably politer,” she added.

There was also a letter implying that Mrs. Bush, a crusader against illiteracy and a Republican activist in her own right, was little more than a lady of leisure.

“Dear Mrs. Bush, I’ve heard that you play tennis and do needlepoint. Do you also eat bonbons?” the writer inquired.

“You bet,” the nation’s Second Lady said she replied. “I play tennis on Wednesday mornings at 7 if I’m in town and it’s not raining or sleeting.

“I do do needlepoint. I just several years ago finished a 10-by-14-foot rug. It only took me about eight years. And as for the bonbons . . . . “

Smiling, Mrs. Bush made a careful turn on the stage, displaying for Orange County Republicans a figure kept trim by several decades of tennis.

But as the vice president’s wife, life is rarely a plate of bonbons, Mrs. Bush said. In addition to working for adult literacy programs, serving as president of the Ladies of the Senate and “editing” a book allegedly written by the family cocker spaniel, “C. Fred’s Story--A Dog’s Life,” Mrs. Bush often travels with her husband--to 49 states, 64 countries and four territories in the last six years.

Recently, it was to the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain where Mrs. Bush was the only female guest at a “man’s dinner.” Seated between a foreign minister and an amir (prince), Mrs. Bush found herself left alone.

What happened, she recounted cheerfully, was that “the amir talked to George,” the foreign minister talked to the man beside him “and I sat in the middle and looked out at miles of Arabian gentlemen who don’t talk to women.”

She left Bahrain “so glad to be an American woman.”

But usually, being the vice president’s wife is fun, she said, noting: “I really love being the wife of the vice president of the United States--and not just because I love the vice president.”

Besides, rank hath its privilege. “When you’re the vice president’s wife, you can talk about your grandchildren--and people have to listen,” she said with a grin.

The Bushes were in Southern California Sunday and Monday to attend fund-raisers for several local congressmen. On Sunday, they appeared at a campaign dinner for Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove). On Monday, in San Diego, they appeared at a reelection lunch for Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad).

Mrs. Bush’s appearance at the free continental breakfast in Irvine was sponsored by the Republican Party of Orange County as a thank-you for its volunteers.