Bloomfield doesn’t start until tomorrow and Montclair doesn’t start until next Monday, but for just about everybody else in Baristaville, today was the first day of school.  Barista Kids sent photographers to SOMA, Glen Ridge and Millburn today to get first-day pictures. Go over there and see if you recognize any of your favorite kids!

And tell us, parents of youngsters, how the first day went.

By the way, what is the deal with those signs? School’s open, drive carefully. School’s closed, drive carefully. Is there a time when it’s okay to drive recklessly? No, we didn’t think so.

Sooner or later, every Maplewood resident sees it: the flashing lights of the Maplewood First Aid Squad outside a house on your street, giving emergency assistance to a neighbor. This week, the squad is asking Maplewood residents for a different kind of aid, raising money for the volunteer organization with its 1st Annual Emergency Services 5K Walk.

On Saturday, September 11, at 3 p.m., approximately 30 members of the squad will take a 5-kilometer walk that will begin at its headquarters, 129 Boyden Avenue, and go through the town. They’re asking people to sponsor the walkers with a donation, either online or to PO Box 572, Maplewood, NJ 07040.

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Larry Hanley, an international vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, flew in from Washington today and gave a pep talk to striking bus drivers in the church parking lot next to DeCamp headquarters, ahead of the first talks between the union and management, scheduled for 1o a.m. today in the offices of attorney Desmond Massey in Roseland.

“Your union brothers and sisters are supporting you in this strike,” Hanley said, noting that the 120 striking DeCamp drivers were backed by 200,000 ATU members and millions of members of the AFL-CIO.

Hanley told Baristanet that DeCamp’s vice president of operations, Gary Pard, runs his bus line using a “plantation mentality.”

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Chapin Clark, a 40-year-old ad agency copywriter who lives in Upper Montclair, hates DeCamp so much that he started a blog called I Hate DeCamp in 2008. In it, he chronicles the daily indignities of being a DeCamp rider. It’s always been one of my favorite local blogs, but I knew I had to find the writer behind it, and interview him, when he published this picture on Day 1 of the DeCamp strike, along with this caption.

Change is never easy. But with patience and persistence, I think I can get used to boarding a vehicle at its scheduled arrival time and having someplace to sit down during my ride.

Here’s what DeCamp’s most vociferous critic has to stay about the current strike.

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I loved this post, “The Screen Door Slams,” by our friend Polly Kreisman of The Loop, about her favorite, and least favorite, things about summer. As we eke out the final drops of summer on this very late Labor Day, I thought I’d compile my own list.

Things I like:

• Going barefoot
• Falling asleep in a hammock by the lake, any lake
• Shade
• Fireflies in June, crickets in August
• Strolling down Church Street on a Friday or Saturday night
• Farm stand corn
• Barbecues with good friends
• Fireworks
• “Mad Men,” “Weeds, “Entourage”
• Listening to cliques of 11-year-old girls talking at the pool

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So here we are, on the day set aside by our great nation to celebrate, not just the end of swimming season and the seasonal wearing of white, but the organized labor movement. What uncanny timing, because just last week, DeCamp bus drivers went on strike, protesting management’s plan to freeze wages for the next five years.

Last week was somewhat of a dry run for the strike, since so many people were on vacation. The fun starts tomorrow, when the full load of Montclair-area bus riders jump the train to the city.

So on this Labor Day, we put the question to you: who do you support in the strike?

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Nicky Mesiah (bottom right) is known for her hand-made toffee, but when I invited her to an end-of-summer picnic at my pool this weekend, I asked her to bring something savory. She brought toffee anyway, along with sweet potato muffins and flax cookies — but she complied with my request and also brought a fabulous savory salad. The magic ingredient was an Italian salami called sopressata, which punctuated the salad like small, clever bits of repartee.

So what a delightful surprise when, the next day, Nicky sent me the recipe, along with the news that she had named the salad for me. I’m only the third person to have my name in a Nicky Mesiah recipe, the others being Karen Diaz Schloss and Bobbi Brown. The recipe for Galant Salad follows:

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There was never any danger, said Dr. Jeremy Goodman, director of the county’s Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. But for about five minutes today, right after the zoo’s 11 a.m. opening, a Code Red was called when a leopard called Megan briefly made her way out of sight of her handlers. Goodman says that, as it turns out, Megan was always in a secured enclosure, and that zoo-goers were safe throughout. But while visual contact was lost, they had to proceed as if the leopard was on the loose.

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Go HERE for an updated story, including pictures from the zoo and a video interview with Joe DiVincenzo.

BNN News Service, which sends us information from police scanners throughout Essex County, shocked us a little while ago with a report that a leopard had gotten loose in the Turtle Back Zoo and that the zoo was on lockdown. Five minutes later, the report came through that the animal was contained. A call to the zoo was answered by this automatic message, “Welcome! Come join us for a fun-filled wild day.” Since nobody was reachable by phone, we’re heading out there now.

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Less than one week (or two in Montclair) until school starts. In an effort to make your life easier, Barista Kids has gathered some important information about the upcoming school year for you. Get the full list of starting dates and a link to all the school calendars here.