Book Review: Outside in Shorts

by Glen Blackwood, Great Lakes Fly Fishing Co.

The past few weeks, I have been looking over my shoulder into the past more than focusing on the present, let alone the future. This trip down memory lane, while nostalgic as it has been, was anything but productive, with the exception of contemplating the importance of family, faith, friends, and natural spaces.

Crossing creeks I fished as a boy, riding past farm fields being harvested where I hunted pheasants and ducks, drinking longneck Budweiser’s with Chris, my boyhood best friend, seeing that the elementary school that I attended from kindergarten to 8th grade had been demolished, and not to mention the Methodist church where Chris and I met and attended is now a Tim Horton’s coffee shop—all of this instilled a rollercoaster of emotions. The time spent outside allowing my hounds to romp is where I found the most solace, preparing for my mother’s funeral. As family and friends, who had to come to pay respects to my mother’s life on a bright, beautiful October morn, the outdoors was a common theme. Whether it was her gardening, trail-cam photos of buckeye bucks, cell phone images of a big bass, 5 pounds 12 ounces landed the day before, soybean yields, or a grandchild’s blue ribbon pumpkin and sunflower—it could be agricultural or sporting; the context didn’t matter. Being outside and the importance of being outside were shared.

In the Amazon-printed book Outside in Shorts by Michigan author Allen Crater, he writes, “And moments like these, spent on the water with friends, provide both the tinder and seasoned logs I need.”

Writing like this is not uncommon in Crater’s first sporting book, Outside in Shorts. Sentences that provoke imagery and contemplation while addressing a broader subject, escaping to the outside. The author, an advertising agency principal in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has written 29 short stories spanning 40 years of outdoor experiences. Some of these essays have been published as magazine articles in Backcountry Journal, Solace, Fly Fusion, and Strung.

The author candidly admits that he came to fly fishing for trout late in life. His involvement developed through his son’s interest in wanting to fly fish. Readers should appreciate the author’s prior conventional angling experiences, gifted by family and friends. The passages of pitching Johnson silver minnows in Canada for northern pike reminded me of boyhood adventures casting the same lure on a fiberglass Fenwick Lunker Stik for chain pickerel, largemouth bass, and the rumored muskie in Pennsylvania; only mine was tipped with an Uncle Josh’s frogcolored pork rind.

Thus, this book’s content is not 100 percent fly fishing for trout. Although the majority of the book’s text is focused on this topic, conventional fishing and big game hunting tales are also shared. The locations of these essays are mainly based both in Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, and the author captures the spirit of both regions.

“The tarter-sauced-smeared walleye sandwich, deep-fried tater tots and tall Two Hearted hit all the right notes- more than the guy wearing the Hawaiian shirt belting out ‘80s covers from the back of the bar. It’s the Friday before the Michigan trout opener, and I am in Dingman’s…”

Or

“Trudging over the last little rise, the view opened into a stunningly clear lake dotted with rising trout. Imposing mountains loomed in every direction.”

While these quotes paint two drastically different scenes, they demonstrate the author’s awareness of locational details. This attention to small points allows the book to develop and grow into the overriding theme of the importance of escaping outside and sharing these outdoor adventures with family and friends.

Jon Osborn, the author of the Fly Fisher’s Guide to Michigan, wrote the book’s forward, describing Mr. Crater in the following manner.

“He’s constantly on the move, a restless spirit more comfortable outdoors than in.”

The book’s writings confirm this description; whether backpacking in the Sawtooth Mountains or arriving at a secluded bay via boat, these stories are moving in both pace and sentiment. The author carries the reader across land, rivers, and still waters, sharing not only the wilds encountered but the comfort found in sharing the outside with others.

Each of us finds comfort in an individual fashion. I recently have found it in the words of scripture, chords of an old-time hymn, the melody of flowing water, the robust camaraderie of a hunting camp, and the stillness of a morning’s first light; each of these elements bringing a sense of ease. And like the stories of Allen Crater, the times outside with family and friends are the most meaningful.

Outside in Shorts ISBN: 979-8-407-54834-8 Paperback Retail Price: $12.95 Author: Allen Crater Publisher: Amazon

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