The Gospel reading at church a couple of weeks ago was Luke 2:41-52, the familiar story of Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem after his family and the others had left to return to Nazareth. After three days of searching, Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple. As the rector put it, they were “frightened and anxious,” much as any of us with children would be.

And now, of course, I worry about my grandchildren. Despite the humorous “Home Alone” movies, losing a kid is not funny. My concern extended into my teaching job.

Several years ago, LEARN initiated a middle school program in response to Sheff v. O’Neill called the Amistad Friendship Society. I was asked to be the faculty advisor at Fitch Middle School. The objective of the program was to have kids from middle schools throughout New London County meet each other to try to overcome prejudices that they had learned about other communities. In large measure, I think it met its goals.

In an effort to help the youngsters understand that although they went to different schools in different towns, they were all part of a larger organization, LEARN provided grey t-shirts with an Amistad Friendship Society logo on the front. So, when several schools joined together for a field trip, there was a mass of grey-shirted children milling around.

My concern was, which ones were mine? I remember in Boy Scouts when Scouts from a variety of troops were gathered together, they all looked alike in their uniforms, except for their neckerchiefs.

I’m not sure about today, but when I was active in Scouting, it was traditional for each troop to have its own neckerchief. Troop 34’s neckerchief was blue with a white border.

With this in mind, I came up with the idea of hair ribbons in blue and green, the colors of the flag of Sierra Leone, the home of most of the Amistad captives. With my girls wearing these, I could spot them from behind. Someone asked me about the boys and I explained that I didn’t have very many, and they would be with the girls, since that is why they joined in the first place!

Along with a few other schools, we went on a field trip to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Apart from the buses getting lost trying to get to Liberty Park in New Jersey, the trip went well, until we were assembling to get on the ferry leaving the Liberty Island. I counted my kids and I was missing a girl, one who had failed to wear her ribbons.

As the rector said, I was anxious! We were getting ready to leave the island and I was short one kid.

Thankfully, the child was a tall redhead, and I spotted her with other grey clad youngsters some distance from us. I told my kids to stay put and I hustled off to gather up my missing youngster.

As I approached her, she looked up at me and said; “Now I understand the reason for the hair ribbons.”

Robert F. Welt of Mystic is a retired longtime teacher in Groton Public Schools.