I took COBOL in college. I enjoyed using it. I think it is a great first introduction to programming.
COBOL is dead, dead, dead. Yes, there are people still doing it and getting good money but it is a dead language meaning nothing new happens to it.
Many languages die: it is fine.
Currently I use .NET, C#, Silverlight, Office integration, and other techs sometimes.
Yes, I have used COBOL, JCL, SyncSort, MVS, Unix, etc. but I stay moving. This is not an industry that forgives dust on a resume.
My buddy just talked to a client today that purchased a Dell with 48 logical cores and 128GB RAM for under 25K. That, and years of it, spells death for a lot of older systems (and languages) due to mainframe licensing policies.