Last Thursday night was the bus parade. And, of course, I got teary. 

As always, a string of school buses load up the 500 or so high school seniors who had just graduated that day, ferrying the class to some undisclosed location for a party that lasts into the morning. But first, they drive through the town. 

They say the route is a secret, and maybe at one time it was, but most everyone now knows that the caravan takes the kids past each of the seven elementary schools and two of the middle schools as they make their way out of town. 

Every year, the parade is joyous mayhem – with flashing police cars leading the pack and fire trucks tooting horns, and bus after bus carrying freshly minted grads who are hanging out the bus windows screaming and reveling and being met with screaming, reveling onlookers. 

People come out of their homes and stand at the curb, clapping for the kids, banging pots with wooden spoons, shouting and yelling at the passing bus line as if they were at a championship game and the home team just took the pennant. People gather at the elementary schools. They throw lawn parties. It’s so loud and siren-y that I often warn my new-to-town clients that it’s about to happen so they don’t think we’re in the middle of an air raid.

I don’t know of another town that does this and it feels so special to me. It’s not just for the parents of the grads, or for parents in general, it’s for everyone. 

Last year, there was no bus parade, and I really missed it. It’s my all-time favorite community event. If you’re a spectator, it lasts only a few minutes as the buses drive by – 10 maybe. But it is unbridled jubilation, and in that way it feels like 10 hours of glee. 

This year, there was even more glee than usual.  And more tears. It was really moving to see this tradition restored after our year of having to put so many traditions on hold. The bus parade isn’t just a graduation thing…it’s a community thing. One of the many ways this big, vibrant, walkable suburb feels like a family.

If you want to see the parade starting off, here's a video from our local paper.

One of the truly interesting aspects to Montclair is that there are no “neighborhood schools.” I mean, there are schools in various neighborhoods, but the student body of a school does not necessarily hail from the surrounding [...]

There are plenty of things I’m proud of about Montclair. We have a magnet school system that is held up as a national model of how to provide integrated education in a diverse town. We have a volunteer-run online message board that allows thousands of people to provide  recommendations for services or help find the owner of a lost dog. We have an adult school that makes lessons about everything from interview skills to Qigong available to everyone in the community. This is a town that strives to bring people together, and it's a place where people want to be together. One of my favorite examples of this is the Montclair Film Festival.

For 10 days in May, Montclair turns into Movie Heaven. There are screenings everywhere, practically all the time – films that have been at Sundance as well as home-grown gems. The number of people who turn out to volunteer – as ushers, ticket takers, etc. – is amazing. It makes going to the movies a bigger, funner event.

On opening night, I went with friends to see “Step,” a documentary about teen girls from Baltimore whose step dance classes transformed their lives. This is the type of movie that I love, a story that reminds us how strong we can be when we band together for a common goal. There were live steppers who performed before the film and then afterwards, two people from the movie took the stage and spoke. And even though we were at the Wellmont Theater, probably the largest venue at the festival, it felt very intimate. We were all touched.

Before the show, my friends and I had dinner at one of Montclair’s newest additions: The Crosby on Glenridge Avenue. The place was hopping and it was only a short walk to the theater – another thing I love about this town that I may have mentioned once or twice.

So many of my clients come from the city at a time in their lives when they want a bit more space of their own, or maybe to grab a little privacy. But they come here because they want to feel a part of something too. And I’m so proud that Montclair can provide all of that. I don’t think I’m being overzealous when I give us five stars.

As a destination suburb, It’s not unusual to find an article that features Montclair in the New York Times real estate section. But it’s not often that I come across two pieces on the same day. [...]

There's so much to say about the Montclair Public School system, it's hard to know where to start. It's a magnet system, with six elementary schools (technically seven, but one pair together comprises K-5th) and three middle schools that all ultimately funnel into a single high school. Children don't automatically attend the closest, [...]

The other day, I was on Valley Road, one of Montclair's main streets, and there was a dad on a bike shepherding two little boys on their own bikes. Valley is a busy street and my stomach clenched a bit when I saw this. I was concerned that they wouldn't be [...]

At the risk of sounding like a 14-year-old, OMG! Joe Walsh is playing at the high school this weekend!

I can't even say I am a huge Eagles fan, but still: OMG!

OMG because he's playing in the high school auditorium, a lovely but relatively small theater space, especially for Joe Walsh.

And OMG because, as a former Montclair High School [...]

It's official - summer is all but over. So the next item on Montclair's agenda must be back to school. What makes this year even better than most is that three of Montclair's elementary schools, and the township as a whole, have been recognized by the NJ Safe Routes to School program for their work toward making Montclair a safe place for our children to walk or ride their bicycles to [...]

As a New Jersey Realtor focusing on the Montclair area, I am often asked, "How good are  Montclair's schools?"  I think they've been terrific for my kids (two in high school and one in middle school), but I understand that prospective buyers might want more objective information than one parent's opinion. So I was happy to read in [...]