Ponsi - Rückentause for Children

I have brought a Rückentause (a traditional wooden back-carrier for milk or other loads). We used to call these “Ponsi.” As a young boy, I had to fetch water with the Ponsi on my back and two buckets in my hands from the Spinamels spring, about a kilometer away from our Maiensäss (seasonal mountain pasture with huts and stables, including a simple dwelling) “Runcalier.” This spring was located very close to the Bärenschluocht. On the one hand, this is a childhood memory that is still vivid in my mind, and on the other, one might say that without water there is no life and therefore no Graubünden.

Gaudenz Schmid, Chur