The young freak with the handlebar moustache was using his old pick-up truck as a "shuttle-bus" from Illinois 143 to the Mississippi River Festival site. He happily picked up anyone wanting a ride and deposited them in front of the main gate at the festival site and didn't charge a penny to do it.

This was only a small sampling of the Roman Carnival Monday night that was billed as the final performance of the 1971 season of the MRF.

After taking a wild ride in the "shuttle-bus", I was deposited at the main gate of the festival site.

Passing through the gate, I saw the largest aggregation of human beings ever assembled at any performance of the MRF since its inception three summers ago.

As far as the eye could see, there were people walking, talking, loving, throwing Frisbees, and just having a generally great time. And it was all orderly.

The main attraction for the final performance was the English rock group "The Who." The Who was not scheduled to go on stage until about 9:30, but about half of the estimated 34,000 customers arrived on the scene four hours before the start of the show.

But The Who wasn't the real star of the show. It was all the brave souls who walked distances up to two miles to patiently stand in line to buy $2 lawn seats.

When I finally took my seat high atop a hill overlooking the north side of the tent, I found almost every different type of person around me.

Short-hairs, long-hairs, businessmen and freaks, all sat in peaceful groups awaiting the start of the show.

At exactly 8:30 a large skyrocket set off by someone in the crowd signified the beginning of the show. The first group, "Labelle," received an enthusiastic welcome from the crowd and gave a good performance for about 45 minutes.

But it was The Who the crowd wanted to hear.

During the short intermission before The Who, the crowd was entertained by the various "cable-climbers" who are present at almost every MRF rock concert. The cable-climbers get some sort of strange satisfaction from climbing the support cables of the tent.

Between performances by the cable-climbers, many of the people in the crowd began to share food and drink with each other.

A straight-looking man and his wife, both in their late-20's, were given drinks out of a bottle of wine by a young man and a woman with shoulder-length hair.

The "straight" then gave the young people the extra blanket that he had been carrying.

Another older man in the crowd gave those around him some of the food that he had brought.

People of all races, creeds and national origins were sitting together laughing and talking. No one seemed to notice the color of skin, or the length of someone's hair.

And then The Who came on stage.

They danced, sang, and entertained for over one hour. People moved closer to the tent to get a better look at the group. After a while, no one sitting back on the hill could even see inside the tent.

But no one really cared. They just sat outside on the ground and enjoyed the music.

People inside the tent stood on the chairs to get a better look at The Who. Girls sat on their boyfriends' shoulders to see.

The Who had the crowd on their feet during the entire performance. One of their big hits, "Magic Bus," brought the largest ovation that I have ever heard at the MRF.

The time passed too quickly and soon the show was over. As the crowd began to quietly file out of the festival site, the old pick-up "shuttle-bus" was once again in operation.

Although we were not able to ride on the shuttle-bus on the way back to the car, neither of us seemed to mind the mile and a half walk.

Our thoughts were still on the biggest and best MRF concert ever.