SPUN OUT… It was summer of 1964, and the Kool-Aid looked delicious. Soon Squid was squished between malodorous flower children on a California road trip, spacing out to the Dead and babbling to Tom Wolfe while the wheels went round and round.

Fast-forward 45 years to another bus journey, this one rolling from Marina to Sacramento Oct. 20, courtesy of California American Water Co. and other members of the newly-formed (and Facebook-friendless, as of Oct. 13) Our Water Our Lives Coaltion. OWOL is inviting all local Jane and Joe Plumbers to hop on the free ride to Sacramento Oct. 20 for the state water board’s hearing on its draft cease-and-desist order against Cal Am.

Cal Am is shelling out a few thousand bones for the 60-seater bus and food, according to company spinstress Catherine Bowie, in hopes of filling it with ordinary citizens who can make emotional pleas against mandatory water rationing. The state’s order would place a moratorium on all new water permits, she says grimly, and might even lead to an outright ban on all outdoor water use. Soon we may not even be able to do our laundry or take showers every day.

Squid can imagine the horror: Insatiable steelhead getting fat while we suffering locals start to stink as bad as the Merry Pranksters. At least, that’s Cal Am’s own spin, which seems to Squid about as hallucinogenic as the Kool-Aid.

BOARD TO DEATH… Squid thinks it’s funny how whenever there is some big Salinas gang meeting, all the politicians come out of the woodwork – especially when they are up for re-election. Take the Oct. 8 Community Alliance for Safety and Peace community forum. A parent asked how to get fellow parents involved at the school level with community safety efforts. Salinas High School District board member Margaret Serna-Bonetti, who hopes to keep her seat Nov. 3, grabbed the microphone to do some politicking, promoting her “open-door policy.”

Alisal School District trustees Gary Karnes and Juan Flores were laying low in the back until resident Al Espindola asked Nancy Kotowski about the conduct of Alisal board members. The night before, the cops were called in to keep order during a heated Alisal District meeting. The board majority has been walking out of meetings presided over by new President Meredith Ibarra, who is pressing for reform and seems to be on a power trip. At the CASP forum, a resident and principal remarked how embarrassed they were by the dysfunction at the school board. Squid wonders whether there is any hope for unity and peace in East Salinas if its politicians can’t even agree on a school board agenda.