Gary Knutson, Twyla Knutson and Colt Foutz at Dublin, Ohio’s Irish Fest, summer 2001.

Lessons and Love from Gary J. Knutson

The first phone conversation I ever had with my wife happened during the opening ceremonies of the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney.

We’d both been working as newspaper reporters at the Sandusky Register since late summer. It was a first job for both of us, and a young office on the whole — we’d pass the time after work, and after the odd late weekend shift, especially, tipping back beers on someone’s porch, or stumbling from one dive to another. Katie and I had barely known each other a month, and we’d be friends for several months before we’d start officially, ahem, dating. But in that first call, we discovered a lot of common points. We talked a lot about our families.

Her dad, like mine, was a salesman. Both…