When closing connection when using it a lot in page

Hi!!

For now, i use mysql_..... to query the DB. Not i want to switch to mySQLi.

99% of time i not close the connection.

the structure of my file are: include for header,include for footer,include for menu, include for top menu........

So i query database in all include file or almost....

so i suppose that it's not good to open connection, query db,and then close it, after in another function or include file, i open it again, query the DB, and close it again...... and so on...

Is it the best to open it in header..... and close in in footer page...?

Or is there a better way? For performance!

Thanks a lot!

Pascal