PORT ANGELES — Ricky Ricardo, where are you?
Kathy Charlton, aka Lucille Ball for a day, will soon put on her red “I Love Lucy” wig and launch the last Grape Stomp at her winery, Olympic Cellars, 255410 U.S. Highway 101.
Saturday is the day of the stomp, which is the centerpiece of Olympic’s annual Harvest Party and costume contest.
Charlton strongly urges partygoers to create ensembles from conglomerated thrift-store finds — and these can be getups celebrating a bountiful harvest, “I Love Lucy” or both.
For those who missed that landmark television series born in the 1950s, “Lucy” starred Lucille Ball as the adventurous redhead and Desi Arnaz as her husband, Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban-American bandleader.
Lucy was always getting into trouble, and in one episode found her way into some grapes that needed stomping.
But in the yearly dress-up-and-stomp parties at Olympic since 2003, “I’ve never had a [costumed] Ricky,” lamented Charlton. “All he needs is black hair and bongo drums.”
She emphasizes that this is the sixth and final Olympic stomp because, just as “I Love Lucy’s” producers stopped making half-hour episodes after six seasons, it’s time for a change.
“We’re 29 and holding,” Charlton added, and with the winery’s 30th anniversary coming in 2009, she wants to concoct something different.
“We need to shake it up next year,” she said, though exactly how is still up in the air.
Charlton is open to ideas.
