Wisconsin, (Partly) Home of the Bubbler

A few more things about Wisconsin. First of all, you can have a fine breakfast any time of day at a downtown Sheboygan place called Jumes. Though strictly speaking, Jumes isn't a diner, the place had that diner atmosphere: a straight pink neon tube all the way around the walls, a few pictures of '50s pop icons here and there, tables, booths and a counter, the hiss of frying, the clink of dishes, relaxed Sunday conversation, the smell of bacon, and even the faint aroma of cigarette smoke -- which isn't banned in all restaurants at all times yet in Wisconsin.

A Greek immigrant names George Jumes got into the restaurant business in Sheboygan in 1929, and the place has been under the current name at the current location on 8th Street since 1951, so the '50s memorabilia, which wasn't overdone as some chain restaurants do, is apt.

Still, I had to wonder. If you're going to dress up your place with nostalgic artifacts, why stop at the '50s? Why not go all the way back to the 1920s? More art deco, a picture of Lindbergh, some Paul Whiteman on the jukebox, though that would be a coin-slot phonograph, since I've read that the term didn't come into popular use until the '30s. Putting the restaurant back into the '20s would cross into historic territory for almost everyone, but then again the 1950s are increasing historic rather than nostalgic anyway.

After I got back from this visit to Wisconsin, I queried a Wisconsinite friend of mine -- who has lived in Chicago a long time -- about the term "bubbler," meaning "drinking fountain" or "water fountain." I asked if he'd heard it used that way, growing up in central Wisconsin in the '50s and '60s.

"I do not remember anyone I know calling a water fountain a bubbler," he answered. "It might be called that in some parts of the state, but not mine. I kinda remember hearing about this before."

I heard about bubblers when visiting Wisconsin in 1978, where I went for a national meeting of Mu Alpha Theta. There were high school kids from all over the country at that meeting at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, but as you'd expect Wisconsin was probably better represented than most other states, so I met kids from the likes of Manitowoc and maybe Sheboygan and Racine. One of them told me that she called a water fountain a bubbler, though she knew that the rest of the world didn't call it that. That odd little fact is my most enduring souvenir of that trip all those decades ago.

After visiting Kohler, that oddity came to mind again, because apparently Bubbler was a Kohler trademark once upon a time. It became generic -- but only in a few places, mainly eastern Wisconsin. And also parts of New England and of Australia. Australia? How did that happen? Even little things can boggle the mind -- a little.