I’m not going to lie — I fell asleep during the rain delay in the One Philly: Unity Concert for America, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on July 4.
Luckily, I wasn’t on the Parkway, but at home watching it on TV. But I’d been looking forward to seeing the show featuring Philly legends like The Roots, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Will Smith, and Meek Mill.
Earlier in the evening, I’d marveled at the relatively small size of the crowd in attendance for performances by Seal and Jill Scott, who took the stage before it rained. The concertgoers who did brave the 100-degree-plus temperatures in Center City that day were all huddled in what little shade there was near the stage.
I’ve covered a lot of events on the Parkway and I’d never seen it look so empty.
And yet, both Seal and Jilly from Philly performed like that crowd stretched all the way back to City Hall. Did I rise up in my living room with a beer in my hand and tears in my eyes as I sang “Kiss from a Rose” with Seal? Maybe. And I definitely gave Scott a standing ovation for her powerhouse performance. Not only did she bring it, she did so barefoot in a tall denim hat few others could pull off. It was golden.
When I woke up the next day and realized the concert had resumed after midnight, I kicked myself for falling asleep and searched for clips of it on social media. I found quite a few, but it was a video Scott posted of herself in Philly after her performance that’s stuck with me days later.
In the video, which was filmed around dusk, Scott and her crew get out of their cars at the intersection of 17th and Wallace Streets in Spring Garden, where an open fire hydrant was spraying cool water in beautiful arches onto the road. It’s unclear if the hydrant was open when they arrived, but this Philly sprinkler scene is a classic summer tableau in almost every neighborhood in the city (even if opening hydrants is technically illegal).
Running through the cool spray of a fire hydrant on a hot day is just as much of a childhood rite of passage in Philly as climbing through the Franklin Institute’s Giant Heart. It’s a core memory, a collective experience, and a kind of joy that imprints itself on the soul.
Folks may question the quality of the water in the Delaware River, but they don’t question the magic of the city’s fire hydrant sprays — the tiny rainbows that appear in their mists, their power to bring neighbors together, and the giggles of pure joy they inspire in kids.
The video of Scott begins with laughter as she and her crew get out of a car and walk toward the hydrant. The man taking the video tries to hurry them along — “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” — because their car appears to be stopped in the middle of the street (which is very Philly, too).
“Excuse me y’all I need to get by,” a motorist says off-camera to the guy taking the video, marking one of the few times in Philadelphia history someone was polite on the road.
The cameraman says to the motorist, “one second, one second,” and Scott and four others, including her son, run screaming through the open fire hydrant. The group then walks back through with beaming smiles on their faces.
“My apologies, thank you, we just got finished with a show on the Parkway,” the videographer says to the Philadelphian who wanted to get by, marking yet another rare occurrence of a motorist being polite on a Philly street. Twice in one day is probably an all-time record.
At this point in the video, Philadelphians on the sidewalk start recognizing Scott (“Oh my God!”) and she decides to take one final pass, alone, through the spray. At one point she just stands with her arms open and her face lifted to the sky, taking it all in.
“Life is frfr what you make it. I love you Philadelphia. I love you so much. Thank you. 250yrsofPhilly,” she captioned the clip.
Scott later added more context in the comments.
“I love the alignment. My 1st apartment was on 17th and Wallace. 2 bedroom. 2 bathrooms. A fireplace and a deck facing the city. Guess how much I paid … $730/ month!!! That was my block 🥰and to do THAT with my beautiful friends plus my Son was … epic. Me loving on Philly and Philly loving on me. SMH. I’m So grateful. Thanx God. Love, Jill,” she wrote.
I was completely taken that Scott — an internationally-touring, Grammy Award-winning artist — found such pure joy in such a small moment here in Philly. This is a woman who fills arenas and theaters and she seemed ecstatic to do something you and I could do any day.
She wasn’t upset that the heat had tempered crowds for her big hometown Fourth of July performance, she wasn’t worried about the water ruining her outfit, and she didn’t care if anyone saw her running through an open fire hydrant.
Scott didn’t seem anything but incredibly grateful for that moment.
Many people struggled with celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary this year, whether because of the sweltering weather or the country’s political climate, and I did, too. But Scott reminded me that the everyday surprises Philly gives us — whether it’s an interaction with someone new, a corner of the city you’ve yet to explore, or an open fire hydrant — are an important part of the American experience, too.
So soak up that kind of Philly magic whenever you can, and no matter how old or how famous you get, I hope you can always find childlike wonder in this city, too.
