From the archives: Close encounter of 3rd grade kind

This story was originally published in Newsday on Jan. 5, 2007.

Once upon a time, Samantha Rollins was deeply in "L-O-V-E love" with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Her passion is documented in a letter Rollins wrote in 1997, when she was a third-grader in Debbie Quiles' class at Washington Primary School in Huntington. Quiles had asked Rollins and her classmates to write about their memories of third grade in letters to their future selves as high school graduates.

Now 17 and headed to college next fall, Rollins got to check in with her childhood psyche yesterday, when Quiles paid a surprise visit to Huntington High School to return the letters to Rollins and 15 other students who had been in the same class.

The graduating seniors were lured from class to the impromptu reunion by a memo inviting them to see an unnamed guest speaker. While most had figured out they would see their third-grade teacher, based on the list of recipients, they were surprised to see their letters. "I don't even remember writing this," said Aaron Cohn, 17.

Rollins said she was disconcerted but ultimately pleased with the blast from the past. "It was just really weird to see the letter. I didn't really know how much Miss Quiles had saved of all of us," she said.

"This was amazing," said Hannah Payne, 17. "I was really happy to see her."

The letters are a peek into the lives and inner workings of 7- and 8-year-olds.

Rachel Hammel wrote about putting on a Spice Girls show. David Kaufman remembered how Quiles used to walk on their desks. Trevor Smith confessed his least favorite class was gym. And Connor Kiesel named each of his 15 friends.

Quiles found the idea from an old Parade magazine article about a New Jersey teacher who had her students write letters. At the high school yesterday, she wore a T-shirt covered with the childish, scrawled signatures of these students when they were third-graders, and said these students had stood out in her 21 years of teaching.

"This particular class was a very motivated class," Quiles, 42, of Medford, said. "They were very much up to a challenge."

During the reunion, the students also watched, with much laughter and groaning, videos of their third grade class putting on a fake newscast and a dance routine set to "Greased Lightnin'."

All the letters included raves about Quiles, and the students continue to praise her as a singular teacher.

"I wish I appreciated my time in third grade," Hammel said yesterday. "She was the best teacher I've ever had."

"She plays with us and she is so funny," Anita Johnson had written in her letter. Johnson, 17, laughed at how her younger self would regard her today. "She would have never thought I'd be like this. I was pretty shy in third grade, but I've really opened up since then."

Some recorded details in the letters were, well, mundane. "I weighed 60 pounds in third grade," Dana Macaluso said, reading from her letter.

Others were prophetic. "I said I wanted to continue with a broadcasting career, and that's still true," Kiesel, 17, said.

Cohn pointed out a reference to the Cub Scouts in his letter, "which is interesting because I'm about to get my Eagle Scout badge," he said. "It's amazing how similar my interests were back then."

'Oh my God. This is so cute.'
DANA MACALUSO

'This is really nice.'
ANITA JOHNSON

'This was amazing.'
HANNAH PAYNE

'I don't even remember writing this.'
AARON COHN

'I wasn't expecting this at all.'
JONAH ROTHLEDER

'I'm just impressed with my handwriting.'
MICHELLE MEDRANO