Patty-Pat Kozlowski: The ‘Summertime’ of the ’90s song is now a distant memory

Drums, please!

The year is 1991 and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince released the epitome of what it feels like come June, July and August in Philadelphia, a song called “Summertime.”

I don’t care if you were a Chinese kid from Mayfair, a Jewish kid from Bustleton, a Polish kid from Port Richmond, an Italian kid from South Philly, an Irish kid from Kensington, a black kid from North Philly or a Hispanic kid from Norris Square — the song “Summertime” made you wanna go get a water ice, jump in the Rec Center’s pool and hit the block party in flip flops and a Phillies t-shirt. 

It was a love song to 88 degree days in the 215 before the word “jawn” was used to describe anything and everything in Cheesesteaktown. It was released when your family reunion picnic at Lemon Hill was a phone call and paper invitation and everybody put up $5 bucks for the t-shirts. Oh, and we can’t forget that music came from popping in that CD, adjusting the bass and letting the Alpine blast, instead of downloading it to your phone and listening to it from your earbuds.

“Summertime” told the story of a summer day in Philly. Double dutch, fireplugs, going to the Gallery for sneakers and new clothes, a family BBQ and then showing off your IROC-Z cruising along South Street and then, remember this line: “A place called the Plateau is where everybody go…….”

Well, around 10:30pm on Memorial Day, it wasn’t the Plateau, it was Lemon Hill where bullets, mimicking the fireplug’s sprinkler effect, rained down on hundreds of Philadelphians who were partying and hanging out in our city’s backyard.

Everybody came, lookin’ real fine

Fresh from the barbershop, fly from the beauty salon.

As of right now, two are dead: Amya Devlin, 23, and Mikhail Bowers, 21. Nine others were shot, including fifteen-, sixteen-, and seventeen-year-olds. Just kids. They rushed some to Children’s Hospital.

Local and national newscasts are reporting it as a mass shooting. Police reported there were three different shell casings found on the ground among the dozens of rounds fired, so we have at least three shooters that targeted Lemon Hill on Monday night. It wasn’t just the midnight special handgun you buy at 5th and Japip out of the trunk of a Dodge Charger with no inspection stickers and a paper temporary plate from Maryland that expired six months ago. No, this was a modified switch firearm that allowed the shooters to rat-tat-tat-tat-tat into the crowd at Lemon Hill like they were playing Call of Duty.

Yeah, they were looking for their victims. This wasn’t terrorists, this wasn’t a hate crime. And, sorry, you can’t blame this shooting on the red hats, the rainbow flags, or the keffiyeh scarves.

This was a neighborhood beef, maybe gang related, maybe drugs, maybe somebody’s girlfriend was with someone that wasn’t her boyfriend or somebody dissed somebody else on Instagram. 

Whatever it was, the shooters opened fire on a crowd of Philadelphians at Lemon Hill and Summer 2025 in Philly kicked off.

Is this the 2025 new definition of summer madness?

On Tuesday, Mayor Cherelle Parker addressed the city like a mama who was ready to whoop ass. I watched her sniff two or three times, heard her breathing out of her mouth and I thought she was going to take her rings and watch off and tie her hair up with a rubber band. She gripped the podium, closed her eyes and let out a deep, labored breath, a breath she was probably holding in since she got the horrific phone call the night of the shootings.

“Let me be absolutely clear today, as your Mayor, I want to affirm to ALL OF PHILADELPHIA that there are no excuses for this. This was a heinous act of violence, no regard for human life.” 

She went on to tell her city, her citizens, that she doesn’t want anyone to tell her that what occurred at Lemon Hill where people gathered for the holiday, was not an act of wartime ammunition that was just opened on Philadelphians. 

“We will not be held hostage. This is not normal.”

If there is a movie version of this moment in Philadelphia history, Viola Davis will portray Mayor Parker as she unleashes a tongue lashing, vocal thrashing of those that pulled the trigger on our city this Memorial Day weekend and killed two of our own. “I am unapologetic” was Parker’s the battle cry as she said she is going to the feds, she is going to the state, she is going to every department in the city and wants every Philadelphian in on this return fire against the gun violence in our city.

“We’re going to have to make some unpopular decisions,” she said, volleying to City Council President Kenyatta Johnson (played by Anthony Anderson, remember the movie!) on the strategy they have to finally take on the lawlessness of Philly. I am hoping, that is their Snakes on a Plane moment, as is, they are tired of these (insert f-bomb) shooters, in our (insert f-bomb) city!

Because this mass shooting didn’t just happen at Lemon Hill on Memorial Day weekend. It happened up in East Torresdale at Pleasant Hill Park’s fish ponds and boat launch. It happened in Bridesburg during the best and biggest Memorial Day Parade in the country. It happened at the Lakes in FDR Park, it happened on the Walmart fishing pier in South Philly, it happened in your postage stamp-sized backyard in Fishtown while you burnt the hotdogs and had to run out to Wawa for more ice. And yes, it happened in West Philadelphia at the Plateau, where everybody go.

One City. It happened to all of us. If you shot up Lemon Hill and killed Amya and Kahlif, you shot up all of us. You killed us. You shot up One City — Our City.

So is the Fresh Prince’s 1991 hit “Summertime” now a folk song we sing to our kids about the fun, safe summers that don’t exist anymore? Is it an oldie that we roll our eyes at because there is no way in hell we’re ever going to get that double-dutch-fireplug-first kiss of a summer back in our city?

We can’t all just pack up our kids and send them to their auntie and uncle in Bel Air.

Be unapologetic. Take no excuses. Make the unpopular decisions.

Lemon Hill is OUR backyard. One City.

Patty-Pat Kozlowski is the Polish kid from Port Richmond that watches the Bridesburg Memorial Day Parade and then incinerates the hot dogs on the grill. Yopattypat@gmail.com