I was in Tennessee this weekend for my boyfriend’s cousin’s wedding. I met 50+ people and was generally overwhelmed. However, I did learn some new things I feel I must share.

Things like referring to a water spicket as a hose pipe are no big deal. However, when you get to witness a 15 minute discussion about taterguns, or po-tatergun, depending on how you would like to say it, you know you are privy to a whole new world.

A tatergun, for those of you not in the know, is a contraption made of PVC pipe, duct tape, plastic garbage bag ties and a lighter you might use to light your grill. It’s shaped like a very large gun with a barrel about 2 or 3 feet long and 3 inches in diameter.

To use your tatergun, you shove a potato in the barrel and use your ramrod to push it to the proper depth. Then you open a cap near the handle and spray some hair spray, preferably Aqua Net, quickly close the cap and then you the lighter as a trigger.

The gun makes a loud whoooomp sound and the gun lights up iridescent blue. With a good shot, a flame shoots out 6 to 12 inches out of the gun and the potato can go well over 100 yards. One man shot a hole through his garage with a potato.

I only saw the gun shot off once but they used White Rain hair spray and apparently that’s not of the same ideal, very flammable low quality that Aqua Net offers. Sure enough though – that potato hit the tree and we had mashed potatoes.