Rows of pink, yellow and red tulips stretch across the East Texas countryside each spring, drawing families, photographers and flower lovers to a small farm outside Mount Pleasant. Visitors wander through the blooms taking photos, filling baskets with flowers and soaking in the rare sight of thousands of tulips swaying in the Texas breeze.
For Jerry Moody '91, a graduate of the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, those colorful rows grew from a visit to a tulip farm, some goading from his daughter and a lesson in agricultural economics playing out on the family farm.
"It was the first time I'd ever experienced something like that," Moody said. "It was truly remarkable. It was colorful. It was beautiful. There were a lot of people out there having fun just enjoying the flowers and each other's company."
On the drive home, Moody told his family they could create something similar on their own land. His middle daughter was quick to challenge him. "My daughter told me, 'You always say stuff like that. You never actually do it,'" Moody said with a laugh. "But the next year, on Dec. 23, she was right there with me in the dirt helping plant 23,000 tulip bulbs."
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