Irvin at Bounds Mill Pond

When I was growing up Bounds Mill Pond was our favourite place for picnics and swimming. Being located several miles off of Highway 11, near Stafford Springs, between Meridian and Laurel, we had many holiday gatherings of McArthur, Sinclair, Stainton and Weems relatives from Meridian and Laurel.

Bounds was a privately owned pond providing water power for an active grist mill. The owners who lived on the property welcomed guests to use the picnic tables they provided and to swim in some of he coldest water imaginable (about sixty degrees) when the outside temperature was in the nineties on a hot summer day. Nothing was formal and modern about Bounds in that day. There was no entrance gate and no rates posted, but soon after we arrived a lady would come down from the house and collect a pittance for use of the tables and other facilities. (Since the adults handled this part I was never aware of the cost, if any,)

Of course, the pond was the big attraction for us kids. There was a diving board and a raft big enough for a half dozen bathers to stretch out on. There were both male and female dressing rooms, with no plumbing.

I still remember that they had a special unpleasant smell about them. We had loads of fun playing in the water and on the sand hill beside the water. Sometimes we enjoyed riding on a resident horse, which was of the old plow horse variety. If we were lucky some farmer would come in with a bag of corn to be ground by the mill, consisting of two large stones turning by a large water wheel outside the mill. It was a thrill to watch the mill turn and produce the corn meal.

A big family picnic topped off the day with fried chicken and all the fixings including big slices of watermelon. There were usually uninvited guest such as ants, gnats, flies, and yellow jackets. I remember the uproar after my sister Ginny was stung by a yellow jacket. That was a rough experience for her.

Johnny and Misc Relatives (Beards?) 1947

Mary McArthur Beard 1947
A few years ago a reporter from a Mississippi newspaper went back and wrote a story about Lake Bounds, as he called it and took pictures of the dilapidated facilities and the pond which was now a shallow moss-filled water hole.