It’s leap year, ladies, and your chance to pop the question — if you can make biscuits

“Lightning in February means frost in May.”

Some folk might think this is folklore, but I’ve seen it happen.

“Thunder in winter, a sign of snowfall to come,” says Ray Baird of The Mount Airy News of Surrey County in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Hmm ... sounds possible to me.

The Old Farmers Almanac says February 2020 is a leap year and the next one will be in February 2024. We have a leap year, a year with an extra day, in February every four years, if that year is divisible by four. Because of this extra day, a leap year has 366 days instead of 365. We need leap years to keep our calendars aligned with the astronomical seasons.

A popular bit of folklore is that “Leap Day,” aka “Ladies Day,” is a day when women are free to propose to men.

So, all you single ladies, since this February has 29 days, making it a Leap Year, here’s your chance to “pop” the question to your choice of husband-to-be if you’re tired of waiting around for him to ask you.

You might even want to take it a step further by asking him if he knows had to do certain chores — like checking the oil, water, and air in the tires of the car you’re driving, or knowing how to use a hammer and nails should a home need some minor repairs.

I say this, because when Harry evidently was thinking of asking me to be his wife, before he popped the question, he asks me — when taking me to his parents’ home to meet them, of all places — if I knew how to make biscuits. Ha, ha. Did I ever give him a fooling.

Of course, I knew how to make biscuits, from scratch, being taught at an early age by my mama, who could make the best biscuits in the county.

And I’m talking about using a “flour-based” wooden bowl, explicitly used for biscuit making, adding the amount of flour required with a couple of dollops of shortening doodled down in the center making a crater to pour the milk in. Now mind you, all of this is an “eye-ball” procedure, no measuring required.

Then you just get into the ingredients with your hands, mixing until enough flour has been incorporated to make a dough stiff enough to pinch off golf-ball-size pieces, roll around in floured hands forming a ball and placing on a greased baking sheet. Flatten the top with a three-finger imprint, add a pat of butter, pop in the oven of 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes and, voila, hot biscuits that will melt in your mouth.

When I answered his question with a “yes,” well of course it then turned into a “show me” episode, right there in his Mom’s kitchen, and, you guessed it, I’ve been making biscuits ever since in my “Tanner Hill” kitchen after he finally proposed February 14, 1957.

I say, proposed. I guess you could call it that, because he just strolled into my parents’ kitchen one evening when picking me up for a date, rolled a diamond ring on the table and said, “There it is, take it or leave it!”

Guess what? I took it and we celebrated 62 years of happily married life together last June 14, 2019.

Each proposal, to a bride, is unique and special, regardless of how it is performed. My granddaughter’s fiance’ popped the question to her in a restaurant by having the chef drizzle the question with strawberry syrup on a tres leches plate.

My grandson didn’t mince words when proposing to the girl of his choice. Being a fisherman at heart, he just put the diamond ring on a large fish hook, dangled it front of her face and she took the bait, simple as that!

So, ladies, don’t miss out this Leap Year. Muster up your courage and whisper the question in his ear followed by a Hallmark movie quote: “Your kisses are light as a feather, but filled with the weight of promise for a future yet to come.”

Jean Tanner may be reached at jstmeema@hargray.com.

This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 10:52 AM.