Today On Oprah

Today on the Oprah Winfrey show she will be featuring people famous from the '90s and where are they now? Like Tanya Harding. Like Lorena Bobbitt. Lorena Bobbitt? Yes, you remember the Manassas lady that used a knife to remove a part of her husband's anatomy and then got in her car and drove down the road to Centerville, VA where she threw it out the car window. This happened around the third week of June of 1993.

It was one of those media moments where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when the news broke via radio or TV. I was driving down Old Keene Mill Road in Springfield, VA when I heard it on the radio. Wow, some interesting local news that kept getting more interesting. First, came the shock over what Lorena had done to her husband in the wee hours of the morning. Second, came the surprise that she was driving with you know what in her hand. Third, came the new surprise that she threw you know what out the window into a field near Centerville, VA. Fourth, came the new shock that police hunted in that field and found that husband's missing part. At this point I can distinctly remember that I almost drove off the road I was listening so intently to the news report.

When I finally arrived at my school the faculty which was 90 per cent female at the time had only one thing on their minds---this story. Luckily it was the very last day of school so the students were just coming in to pick up their report cards and to say goodby to everyone.

After school ended before midday our school faculty headed to Bennigans Restaurant at Springfield Mall to have our end of year faculty luncheon. Again, everyone was abuzz about Lorena Bobbitt and what she had done to her husband. Soon someone mentioned that they had seen it reported on all the major TV morning shows and that the news wires were abuzz with the story. Someone else mentioned that truth is often stranger than fiction and wasn't it a real play on words that the husband was called Mr. Bobbitt. How puny can you get with this story.We were all adding our two cents to the story when someone looked out the window and spotted one of newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton's cabinet members approaching our restaurant door. Sure enough in walks Robert E. Reich, President Clinton's Labor Secretary. At any other time we would have been thrilled to have seen a cabinet member in our midst but not today. Oh, forget Robert Reich. Let's just get back to discussing the antics of Lorena Bobbitt. And so we did just that.

Well today you can relive all the memories of this '90s news story along with some others if you take time to watch Oprah this afternoon. She is on at 4:00 P.M. in Haymarket, VA.

Final note: the follow up trial of Lorena Bobbitt in the city of Manassas was probably the most exciting event to hit Manassas since the first and second battles of Bull Run during the Civil War. Sleepy little Manassas had reporters from all over the world flocking to the courthouse to cover that trial.