If you're from Wisconsin, then you know that the places you get a drink from are called bubblers.
Bubblers are connected to Wisconsin like peanut butter is connected to jelly — you can't have one without the other. If you're not from Wisconsin, then those same places are probably called 'drinking fountains' or 'water fountains' to you.
It can get very weird if people from Wisconsin go somewhere else and they ask where the nearest bubbler is. The person they ask will look very confused and might even act like they're speaking a different language. I know this because this has happened to me on multiple occasions.
When I go to visit my aunt in California, it is always funny when I ask someone where the bubbler is and they actually know what I'm talking about, because they too are from Wisconsin.
The history behind why Wisconsinites, including myself, call it a bubbler is easy to follow.
Kohler Co., a company in Wisconsin, produced the first bubbler ever. It shot water an inch into the air for people to drink from, and it allowed them to not have to put their mouth on something that others were using daily. These were mass produced and many bubblers were all over the state, including in front of the state capitol building in Madison, Wis.
Calling this device a bubbler caught on just like calling tissues Kleenex. It was all about the product's name that the company gave it, rather than the job it performed.
There will never be an occasion where I don't use the word bubbler. I just feel foolish calling it a 'drinking fountain,' and it is so fixed into my brain that it's called a bubbler and not a drinking fountain.
It's just like the difference in calling carbonated drinks 'soda' and 'pop.' To some people, it just won't feel right calling it the other word. It'll be like asking for something totally different than what you actually want.
Wisconsinites are proud of having bubblers. We will gladly keep the tradition to ourselves. It's a way to communicate with fellow Badgers and it will always be a secret code between us that only Wisconsin-born individuals will understand.
Everyone else can keep their 'water fountains' and 'drinking fountains' — us Wisconsinites will take our bubblers.
