The generation of golden oldies might be dying, but they still rocking it

The Cat in the Hat (and now even Finance Minister Godongwana) reminded me of my favourite PJ O’Rourke quote: “A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.”

But he is, alas, no more. Not the Cat, unfortunately, the satirist, who last week left this earth at 74 – but for me he will be forever young, trapped with his long hair and wide tie in a black and-white picture on his book flaps.

I have to face it: funerals are my go-to events nowadays; my generation is dying out. Blame the Baby Boomers, but what a legacy we leave behind – we taught our children they can be seen and heard. We shared our lives’ ups and downs honestly with them; taught them life has lemons, lots of them, and didn’t worry showing them our feet of clay.

Those same feet my dad hid so well in his generation with his Jim Reeves and Mario Lanza. Who, you ask? Exactly. I’ll die happy knowing my generation’s music is loved by the next too.

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That’s what a 20-something snappy dresser taught me when he stopped next to me with Roxette’s It Must Have Been Love blaring on his boom box. “You’re dating yourself,” I tell the young one. “Naah, Valentine’s night is still clinging to me,” he laughs.

And I loved it, not necessarily the ’87 song, but that both the dresser and I can fall for the soppy: Lay a whisper, on my pillow… Maybe it’s because my generation still rocks. Bob Dylan, Phil Collins, Def Leppard – none of them know they can’t quite crack the notes anymore – with one exception: the Stones’ Mick Jagger…

Death warmed up with eight children and countless ex-wives, but have you seen that man’s moves at 78? And that voice…

I still move when I hear the opening bars of Sympathy for the Devil. Please allow me to introduce myself I’m a man of wealth and taste I’ve been around for a long, long years Stole million man’s soul an faith Music stole my soul.

And it reminds me à la Bryan Adams style: 18 till I die. My generation will be, like O’Rourke, forever young. Rock on.