Pluto + Slavery Foibles

My dad reminded me of something that I omitted during all of my Pluto fist-shaking: my grandfather was actually born in a town called Pluto, Texas. Once I recalled that, this whole saga went from an intellectual curiosity to a point of family pride. In fact, when I was a little kid, I used to tell people that since I had a grandparent from Pluto, I was 25% extraterrestrial. And I guess I can still say that, since I said extraterrestrial, not from another planet. But just imagine if I'd used those slightly different terms! A precious memory from my youth would be smashed to bits by those fatcat astronomers. First they take my planet, then they take my childhood; leave it to scientists.

Speaking of that particular grandfather, I have another story of my youthful precocity that relates to him. I remember I was in second or third grade and we were learning about the Civil War. My teacher explained that one effect of the war was that slavery was abolished. I then raised my hand and told her that, oh it pains me to recall this, that she was incorrect because, in fact, my grandfather had a slave. My grandfather had a big ranch and the fellow who worked it for him happened to live there. Since I never saw him go anywhere, he lived in the barn, and he'd been around for as long as I could remember, I suppose I just classified him as a slave. I feel bad about it now, but how's an 8 year old supposed to know about the division of labor?

We argued about it for a bit and when I left class, I felt a little confused. "Where are they getting these teachers? It takes a 7 year old to explain the ways of the world to this lady?" I'm not really sure what happened next, although it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that she went out into the parking lot and burned her teaching diploma. It's not too often you get stupidity, alleged human rights abuse, and a surly attitude all in one class, but that's the way I like to learn.

So: my bad on that one, everybody. This changes nothing about Pluto, however.