In two days, juniors and seniors will gather in the Art Ovation Hotel to celebrate Pine View’s annual Cobalt. First introduced in 1972, these two stories reveal the origins of the celebration and show exactly how the event has grown and transformed over the years.
Written by Clera Galbraith –Published May 2, 2003
It started on a breezy night on the old Pine View Campus. Juniors brought potluck dishes to Doctor
Malinsky’s portable to honor their teachers and beloved class sponsor. It was dubbed the “Cobalt Café” because the round tables of the chemistry lab looked like those found in a coffee house, and cobalt was a beautiful element with a nice ring to it.
The stage was set, the food was brought and eaten, the students were lavishly dressed, and they mingled for the first time outside of school with their teachers. The night could only be described as magical. “It’s just a unique opportunity for faculty and students to party together,” explains guidance counselor Leslie Chase.
The first Cobalt was, indeed, unique, and completely unlike any other. “The first time is always in your memory,” enthuses math teacher Ruth Kroll. The second time was just as memorable, as the “cobalt café” expanded to two portables, and even had a mini courtyard in-between them. “I remember they had all these lights up around. We were dancing under the stars, literally,” Mrs. Kroll continues.
However, as times change, so did the Cobalt Café. Thirty years later, it has evolved into elaborate balls, with a different theme each year. Past themes include “The Roaring Twenties,” “the Academy Awards,” “Mission Impossible,” and “Atlantis.”
“The themes are really neat. I remember one time it was ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, the entrance was decorated like an old train car. The entrances are really unique, ” reminisces Mr. McCracken.
Aside from utilizing Cobalt as a means of developing bonds with teachers, students take the themes into their own hands and dress to impress. Each year students come up with a wild plethora of different “costume” ideas. “I remember Summer Horvath coming in with her red hair, red wings, and a pink dress, with her bald boyfriend,” recalls Dr. Rice. Even if you’re on the conservative side and dress to blend in, there ought to be someone there whose eye you’ll catch, such as Vinti Bhatnager’s who remembers when “this one guy came in a tux! It was really unique.”
This year’s Cobalt promises something more amazing and exciting than even the elaborate Cobalts of the past. It is to be held in the courtyard of Mote Marine Laboratorie; students will be dancing not oniy under the stars, but among exotic ocean life. Tomorrow’s celebration is Ocean’s Eleven themed will feature all sorts of surprises.
Written by Eloise Malinsky
I was hired during the summer of 1971 to teach chemistry at Pine View, where I would spend the next 35 wonderful years. At that time the campus consisted a group of portables on Tami Sola Street, across the street from the Euclid Ave YMCA. I was taken to my portable and saw that there were huge, old lab stations in it that took up essentially all the room space. Having recently designed a new chemistry lab for a community college, I asked if new lab tables could be built and installed in the portable I recommended circular tables, allowing easy movement in the small space. They were installed over the weekend after the first week of classes. When the students came in on Monday, they said the white, circular tables reminded them of a cafe. They nicknamed my portable the Cobalt Cafe. I guess they just thought “cobalt” sounded good with “cafe”, and the selection of the name of an element was appropriate for a chemistry classroom.
I had agreed to be the sponsor for the class that would be the first to graduate from PV in 1973. The year when they were juniors, they suggested that we have a pot luck dinner with the faculty to be held in my classroom. So the invitations went out to the faculty, inviting them to dinner at the “Cobalt Cafe”. The students thought it would be fun if we decorated the room and dress as they did in the roaring 20’s. Everyone dressed for the theme. Dancing took place outside after dinner. The evening was a success, and the beginning of a huge PV tradition.
The following year, the new junior class had heard about last year’s Cobalt Cafe, and thought it would be nice to do the same thing, but have the seniors come as guests and not have to bring food. This time we had to use my portable and the one next to it since there were now more people. A different theme was selected. Again both students and tacuity dressed to fit the theme. Another event now known as “The Cobalt Cafe” had taken place.
As the classes got larger, more space was needed. We eventually moved the event to Alta Vista’s cafeteria. But it continued to be pot luck, and the event was always a tribute to the seniors, put on by the junior class and the faculty. PV students always liked being different. They did not was a prom. Dressing for the theme was always exciting.
The year that Ben Turoff was a junior, Cobalt Cafe moved off campus for the first time. His parents, owners of the Golden Apple Dinner Theater, suggested we use it, and that was also the first time that the event was catered. There was still a theme for which everyone dressed. Of course the event could not return to the campus again, since each junior class wanted to create a better event than the last. Over the years there were movie themes, Broadway themes, USO, and a Polynesian theme. One year the event was held on the beach on Longboat Key under tents when the theme was the Arabian Nights! In 1985 the theme was the Academy Awards, and every senior was presented with a “golden pinecone”, made by spraying pinecones and mounting them on a base, each awarded for some creative excuse. That was the first year for the golden pinecone award. Since people dress formally to attend the Academy Awards, dress that year was formal.
After that year, many students decided to dress formally instead of dressing to fit the theme. The theme has continued, but for the last 10 years or so, everyone seemed to come in formal attire. The name “Cobalt Cafe” was eventually dropped to just “Cobalt” and the event turned into a regular prom, much to the disappointment of older PV alumni, who never wanted it to be an event like the other high schools had.
Times change, but here we are 47 years later, and what began in my portable on the old campus continues, at least in name. I guess you never know what may happen to something you start.
Eloise Malinsky