Back to School Supply Mania

The letters hit doorsteps on Wednesday, September 1, and throughout South Orange and Maplewood you could hear the sound of minivan engines revving in driveways from Hilton to Montrose.

Parents all over the towns were headed out to buy school supplies. (Okay, okay, AFTER everyone first posted their children's teacher assignations on Facebook.)

The letters designating teacher selection for each child arrived with a lovely little list on the back, designating what supplies that child's teacher required for the classroom. Paper towels, clorox wipes, pencil cases, three-ring binders, tissues, 24-pack crayons, markers, highlighters, pens, Post-it notes, White-out, you name it.

If you've lost the letter, your school's PTA or HSA should have it on the website.  (Columbia High's HSA does not provide a supply list; on the high school level, the lists are too individual. Still, the CHS HSA website has loads of good information for you to know.) Check with:

• Tuscan Elementary PTA
• Clinton Elementary PTA (Also attached here as a pdf.)
• Seth Boyden Elementary PTA (The Seth Boyden general list was taken down from the website as it did not match some teacher-specific lists. A general list is attached here as a pdf, but parents should check with their child's teacher to make sure they purchase the correct supplies.)
• South Mountain Elementary and Annex PTA
• Jefferson/Marshall elementary schools PTA
• Maplewood Middle School HSA
• South Orange Middle School HSA
• Columbia High School HSA

As always, I am the last parent to shop, finding many back-to-school supplies shelves ravaged and looking like a supermarket bread or milk aisle with a hurricane on the horizon. I often start at the CVS at 187 Millburn Avenue where I get prescriptions filled, They are open from 7 am-10 p.m. Sunday through Saturday. If you're truly desperate, the closest 24-hour CVS is at 2287 Morris Avenue in Union (corner of Commerce Avenue).

Other pharmacy options are the RiteAid on South Orange Avenue, Pathmark on Valley Street, Walgreens in the Millburn Mall and the Walgreens on Irvington Avenue just across the Newark border (this place has beeb a goldmine for me—I used to shop there all the time when I lived off Boyden Avenue).

But my favorite—and the place that never seems to run out of supplies and offers the most choices—is the Staples in the Millburn Mall in Vauxhall. The hours are: weekdays from 8 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. I'll probably be there Monday night at closing time—but I'll call first to make sure they're open on Labor Day! (908-206-8765)

Once you stock up on all the basics, head down to Maplewood Village for adorable lunch boxes and thermoses at 3r Living (they don't close their doors until September 30), snag more goodies at Hopscotch, and pick up one or two forgotten items (tape? scissors? tissues?) at Kings or Maplewood Stationers.

Where do you shop for back-to-school supplies? Share your tips! Tell us in the comments.