The Old Pals Act

I really loved "The Who"! Mod anthems, great clothes, cool hairstyles and real attitude. Even now I can embarrass the hell out of "the teenager" by screaming my way through "Won't Get Fooled Again" whilst throwing in an occasional Townsend flailing "air" power chord to complete the picture.

However, as much as I love a touch of irony, the iconic line "hope I die before I get old" does evoke a snigger when you consider the band is still touring and they are older than me. Mind you at least Kieth Moon and John Entwhistle stayed true to the cause.

But have I've taken it too literally? Maybe those lyrics really allude to not getting mentally old. To not thinking like a grumpy old man, not being averse to change and to not enjoying every last minute we have on this crumbling old rock. If that's the case I'm totally on it.

You may be thinking "where's this all going?". Well, let me tell you. Over the last seven days I have spent evenings with three of my very best and oldest friends. Between us we have nine kids, seven divorces, one marriage that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century, three currently single men and an average of over thirty-five years of friendship between me and each of them.

None of us are deluded enough not to recognise we are no longer young men but one things for sure, compared to our Dads at the same age we are a darn sight "younger". They were all great guys and all sadly no longer around and much like us, their sons, they each had very different lives and degrees of success and failure but without doubt when they were the same age as we are now they were "older".

Maybe, it was growing up in the sixties and all that that involved (the bits I can remember anyway........you gotta love a cliche), or the evolution of media that allows us to tune into the zeitgeist without really noticing it or maybe it is just a refusal to accept chronology as a life style choice.

I have two other theories that I believe are the real answer. Firstly, I think my generation of parents are closer to their kids than our forebears. Not that we love them more, that is certainly not the case but we share more and are less judgemental. We watch the same TV, go to the same movies and sometimes (I did say sometimes) even listen to the same music. Sex and drugs are no longer taboo subjects for discussion and extended families have taught tolerance and displayed our vulnerabilities.

Secondly, friendships like mine that have stood the test of time ensure that we are not allowed to take ourselves too seriously. There is always someone to schlep one back to earth with a bang when a "senior moment" beckons.

Take the other night. Three of us went to a bar that was oh so trendy back "in the day" and we still love. It started off with the usual catching up, moved onto "credit crunch" and careers (in my case, lack of one), escalated to the opposite sex and sex and by the time we were on our fourth Mai Tai the conversation took a distinctly downward spiral. Each and every weakness and foible was ridiculed relentlessly, waitresses smiled kindly at us as we flirted aimlessly with them and most important of all we giggled non-stop like fifth formers on a school trip.

At 4am I fell into bed, "pissed as a newt" with a big smile on my face. About five hours later I was awoken by a "call of nature". I gingerly ventured towards the bathroom and fell flat on my butt. My body felt 58, my head felt 18 and I was still giggling.

"Hope I die before I get old", I don't think so and if you think that's childish......."why don't you all f-f-fade away".