Street renamed after 'independent' teacher Bobb

Cradley Trace,  in the Scarborough/ Calder Hall district,  has been renamed  Kenetta Bobb Drive to honour a retired Scarborough Secondary teacher. Residents of the area and Scarborough Secondary alumnus Kevon Mc Kenna  recommended renaming the street renamed not only to honour Bobb but to avert postal errors caused by  duplicated street names. There is another Cradley Trace in the same district.

Newsday was told there are a number of duplicated street names in the district that have caused confusion for decades. 

In 2017 the Tobago House of Assembly started a continuing initiative to name every street in Tobago.

The renaming of the street was hosted  last Tuesday by the Division of Community Development, Enterprise Development and Labour.Asked how she felt to be honoured in this way, Bobb said she was excited, overwhelmed and honoured by the way her passion for teaching home economics in schools was being highlighted.In 37 years, Bobb taught at several primary schools, Roxborough Secondary School and then at Scarborough Secondary School for 27 years.

She said one of her goals was to encourage young women to strive to be fully independent. Growing up in L’ Anse Fourmi, Bobb said her father admired an independent woman, and that was all he ever wanted for her as she approached adulthood. She recalled walking to school barefoot but making sure she had on earrings and bracelets.

"I got the earrings as a gift as a baby and bracelets that my grandfather gave me.”

Bobb said she felt gratified that her work had an impact on the lives of those she taught.

“As I have always indicated to the young ladies, do your work, settle down, become somebody, don’t belong to any gimme-gimme crowd where you always have to ask your significant other for a pair of shoes. My Daddy made sure and reminded me that I had to be an independent woman."

She added, “Grow beautiful, stay beautiful and believe in God…I will also tell the men, 'Don’t hit any woman, it doesn’t make any sense.'”The first of eight children, Bobb studied home economics at secondary school and then teachers' college.

"I did it and I did it well…I did what I had to do and I did it my way, and my way seems to have impressed people.”

Bobb said the lessons her father taught her had stuck and she guards her independence fiercely.

“I never wished to have any children. I didn’t have enough patience to get married because I couldn’t stand nonsense from men, and Daddy always wanted me to be independent. When you get married it takes away from that independent feeling.”Still, she is seen as a mother by those she taught – such as McKenna.

When she  heard the street was to be renamed after her, she said, "I say, ‘Me? How you arrive at that?’ 

"He told me he attended Scarborough Secondary, where I taught. I observed him as an active member of the cadets and an outstanding young man, and probably he observed and admired my lifestyle.”