'73 Psychedelic Bird

Having walked our halls for many years, Jeff “Jeffro” Felts has left a positive impression on many of the students at Pulaski County High School through the jokes and stories he shares. He helps anyone who asks and remembers the names of almost everyone he crosses by. Jeffro has a kind heart and gentle laugh, but what we didn’t know about Jeffro is that he created the cover of the 1973 Pulaski High School yearbook, before Dublin and Pulaski merged.

After some digging, we found a copy at the Ratcliffe Museum in downtown Pulaski and decided to present it to him after an interview.

“I didn’t know my bird was going to be the cover,” he said. “I was in art class and they were working on clay and molding and sculpture. I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to paint and draw. Mrs. Love, who was the art teacher then, asked if I could draw a big bird. I did a psychedelic bird but I didn’t know what she wanted it for, I was never told until the annual came out.” Jeffro said. “I ran into a friend at a drugstore and he said they had my picture. I told him I hadn’t done nothing in here. He took me up to the front and pulled out the annual and there it was with my name on it. All the pictures that divided sports and classes and clubs were the designs inside the bird.”

“Back then it was during the lighter part of the hippie era and I did a lot of psychedelic artwork.” Which, he said, inspired the designs within the bird. “Coming up with the idea was the best part, I never plan what my work will be. I’ll start out with an idea but the idea constantly changes. What I start out with, isn’t what I end up with. It took me by surprise when I saw my artwork on the cover.”

We decided it was time to reveal what we had hidden, we pulled out a copy of the ‘73 yearbook and as it was handed over a smile grew on his face and our smiles followed suit.

“Ya’ll done made me turn red.” He said as he flipped through the book, recalling memories from so long ago. He thanked us profusely and we snapped a few shots of him and his creation.

He had said that we made his day, but little did he know, he made ours as well.