(upbeat music) - Welcome to "You Oughta Know."

I'm Shirley Min.

Excitement is in the air and green is everywhere, even on today's show, but that's not all.

Fashion and rock and roll go hand in hand at this Asbury Park store.

Eagles fans are like none other and we are not ashamed of that.

Plus, the cavalry is here.

We learn about one of the country's oldest troops.

(upbeat music continues) We begin the show with a story steeped in history.

The first troop's procession caught the attention of one of our producers and what he uncovered was a Philadelphia military unit whose roots date back to before the founding of our nation.

(drum music) - The first troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry, was formed on November 17th, 1774, right here in Philadelphia, Carpenter's Hall.

For the last 250 continuous years, it's served the city, the state, and the country as an army National Guard cavalry organization.

- When you look at Philadelphia being the birthplace of freedom and people gathering and starting to set the groundwork for independence, for liberty, the troop is one of the first institutions to come about after the first Continental Congress.

- In 1774, relations with Great Britain are starting to deteriorate.

Three principal organizations provide the initial 28 members of the troop.

The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the State in Schuylkill, what was then called the Colony in Schuylkill, and the third most important one was the Gloucester Fox Hunt.

Those equestrians offered their services, saying, "We will form a cavalry troop outfitted at our own expense and we only ask to be reimbursed while we're on your service."

So, the Continental Congress takes them up on that offer.

It's in 1775, after you've had The Battles of Lexington and Concord, the troop then is actively drilling here in Philadelphia, and then in that fall of 1775, they will start picking up their initial missions.

Their first mission is to escort the newly appointed commander in chief of the army, General George Washington, from Philadelphia, north to command the Continental Army.

It starts a close association with Washington that will last throughout the war and the period from which Philadelphia is the capital of the United States.

Washington and the troop are good friends.

(triumphant music) - When the Militia Act was written, there are 13 organizations that say, "We'll become part of the National Guard."

We are the last organization prior to 1792 that is still part of the National Guard today.

So what that entails is is we have, as the text writes, ancient rights and privileges of a militia unit and we follow and subscribe to all Army and Army National Guard policies.

People that are in Alpha Troop or the Pennsylvania National Guard come to the organization, they're sponsored in, and then they're voted in based off of their active role, people who are drilling, contributing members of the National Guard and support the organization as a whole.

We also have people who want to join the troops, so they join the National Guard.

We have 64 active members helping promote the image of the citizen soldier, and it really is about building an institution to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the United States.

(triumphant music continues) - In addition to its regular military mission, the troop is one of the very few Army National Guard units that's been officially designated by the Department of the Army as a ceremonial organization.

So, that ceremonial portion requires that we get on horses.

We've always put a premium on good horsemanship.

- The relationship with the horse is a historical one, so we have retained that.

We haven't given up that tradition.

We've brought in people into the organization who are horsemen and were interested in the National Guard.

We've also brought in soldiers who are used to the cavalry role, reconnaissance, communication, scouting, and then we've taught them to ride horses.

And so on November 15th, 2024, we rode from the armory here on 23rd Street all the way over, past Independence Hall to Carpenters Hall to celebrate that tradition and honor those 28 men coming together to found a historic institution and their sacrifice to the nation.

- The troop are the actual successors.

They're not reenacting anything.

These young men are still deployable assets within the army.

They aren't somebody that just does this as living history.

They are the history.

(triumphant music continues) - Really interesting story there.

Our next story focuses on trap, neuter, and return.

That is the strategy behind a group of volunteers who are working really hard to make life a little better for feral cats in Barrington, New Jersey.

- [Dawn] Hi, Beauty.

Hi, Bud.

We're giving them the best life possible given the fact that they need to have this outdoor life 'cause these feral cats will not be happy, they would not adjust to being in a home environment.

So this is one of our smaller colonies.

There are currently four resident cats here.

We have Beauty, the white one.

The little orange one is Biscuit.

He's probably the newest one to the colony and Baxter is running around here somewhere.

He's an all black cat.

And we supply food, fresh food and water every morning for them.

We typically try and feed the cats in the morning.

The wildlife seems to congregate at nighttime so the mornings are definitely the best time to feed them.

They have all day to kind of snack on their food.

We give them wet food and we give them dry food so they can have some food, you know, all day long.

(whimsical music) There was a huge feral cat population in town, mostly surrounding some of our larger apartment complexes in town.

Local animal control officers had to come in and trap about 200 cats and unfortunately, got taken to the shelter and were euthanized.

- The town of Barrington realized that there was a big feral cat problem in town.

So the borough decided to implement a trap, neuter, return, also known as a TNR program and set about getting volunteers to help to trap the cats.

Over time, the program has evolved so that we are able to trap a feral cat, get it spayed, neutered, and vaccinated and return it to where it was found.

And then we have set up colonies where these cats were found with the shelters and with volunteers who can come on a daily basis to provide fresh food and water for them.

- So all the cats that are part of a TNR program, their left ear is clipped on the top and that is a universal marking that the cat has been altered and is part of a TNR program.

We usually spread it out.

Sometimes they don't like to eat next to one another so we spread the food around onto the different feeding stations.

The feeding stations have a cover on them to try to protect them from the rain.

Cat colony is a community of cats.

(cat meowing) They can vary in size.

There may be as few as three cats.

There could be as many as 18 to 20 cats.

And once we know that there is a collection of cats in an area that we have trapped and gotten spayed and neutered, we have set up an area with shelters.

Shelters where the cats can stay, especially during the winter months, that are lined with straw and also areas where we can place their food.

So we call them our food stations.

And every day, we have a volunteer who would go to each of our colonies.

We're taking care of about 10 colonies currently and there are a total of about 60 cats combined in all of these colonies.

(whimsical music) - [Dawn] When we put our shelters out, we try and keep them kind of hidden from the public.

It just makes it better for the cat.

I mean, they're living out here, they're fending for themselves on a daily basis and it's rough for them.

You know, so we try and really give them the best life that they can living as outside cats.

- It's never too soon to start preparing an estate plan, whether you wanna leave something behind for your pets or your family.

But surprisingly, 60% of Americans don't have a will.

Do you?

I recently met with an estate attorney who gave me some tips on how to get started.

When it comes to estate planning, there are dos and there are don'ts.

Kristen Bennett, you've spent your career helping people sort out the details.

So how do we get started?

- I typically tell people to get started by thinking about who they want to take care of them to help them when they are older and then start thinking about how you want to distribute your assets.

- So it sounds like estate planning encompasses way more than simply drafting a will.

- Yes, so I think about estate planning as being the whole picture.

So you're planning for incapacity later in life and who's gonna take care of you, but also planning for your death and the disposition of your assets, but doing so in a consistent manner and a tax-efficient manner.

- When do you think people should start?

- No one tends to think about it until later.

No one wants to plan for their death.

So I believe anyone who is 18 years or older needs an advanced healthcare directive.

It's a combination living will and medical power of appointment.

So it is there for emergency situations.

You get hit by a bus and there is someone who can make a medical decision for you and you're not making rash decisions or trying to scramble in an emergency.

I think anytime that you have a child, you can name a guardian so that if something happens to you, the courts and everyone knows who you want to be raising your child.

- We said there are some don'ts.

So what are some pitfalls people should avoid?

- The biggest one I see is naming your estate as the beneficiary of your retirement plan.

A lot of people think it's a convenient way to leave their retirement plan because it's just gonna pass through to the beneficiaries of their estate, but they don't understand the tax consequences.

We don't ever want anyone to name their estate.

They should name beneficiaries directly.

Another don't is a joint account.

The ones I'm worried about is when a parent adds a child to the account.

Delaware law, most states say that it goes to the surviving joint owner and that would mean that the child on the account inherits all of the money to the exclusion of his or her siblings.

I do think that your documents have to be findable.

It is always unfortunate when we've done all the work and prepared everything and the documents cannot be located.

- There are so many things that you can do online these days.

Is estate planning something that a person can do on their own or do you recommend an attorney?

- So there are things that people can do online.

So the advanced healthcare directives.

Every state has a statutory form for an advanced healthcare directive.

So that is something that you can absolutely do on your own.

The same is true of a durable power of attorney.

With a will, it can be a little bit different.

I've had experiences with do-it-yourself wills that have been absolutely fine.

And then we've had the rest, which can be pretty bad and can be troubling for the estate.

We've had some where, because the will was done without the assistant of an attorney and the format that they were using wasn't a very good one, that litigation has ended up bleeding the estate dry and there was really nothing left to distribute to the beneficiary.

So you do have to be careful because the forms that you find online don't always have good instructions.

They're almost never state specific.

- We've talked about so many things about why estate planning is important, but why do you think estate planning is important?

- I think it's important because of the peace of mind and clarity it can provide to your family.

It can reduce fighting between siblings because the parents made the decision to put this person in charge or to leave this table to that child and so it stops the siblings from fighting amongst themselves, which can be beneficial because it's a very emotional time when you've just lost your family.

So I think it really helps your family to kind of address that in the least stressful way possible.

- Kristen Bennett, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you for having me.

- Once your estate planning documents are complete, Kristen says you should take a look at them every five years on your own.

You'll wanna see your attorney though in the event of any major changes to your financial situation or your family.

If your estate plan is on your to-do list this year, I hope that you'll join me for a free virtual event WHYY is hosting this February.

Learn about the basics of preparing an estate plan from a panel of attorneys, including Kristen, and they'll be able to answer your questions live on Zoom.

Join me on Tuesday, February 18th at 3:00 PM.

To register, visit WHYY.org/events or call 215-351-2000.

Modern Love Fashion in Asbury Park, New Jersey is where you wanna go to tap into your inner rockstar and look the part.

(lively music) - My background in fashion started years ago 'cause I was into hairdressing.

I worked in New York City for many years, went to London for a year and I was very inspired by fashion there completely.

My husband played with Lenny Kravitz for 15 years and there was a lot of fashion, a lot of clothes, wardrobe stuff and I don't know, I just have that passion to be like, you know, store owner, you know, my own little thing and I love everything in here.

So it's like my little closet.

Rock and roll clothing, to me, is the idea of going back to those times of the '70s, late '60s.

Also just stuff that's also edgy and it doesn't have to be just for musicians or stage wear, you know, and it's just something that you're able to express yourself differently.

We have some vintage, we have some thrift stuff.

The other stuff is newer from Chicago, mostly leather trip, which is Trash & Vaudeville, new designers, young designers that make the little tank tops with a cute little sayings on them.

A lot of the other stuff is based out of England.

And then we also have rock and soul shirts.

And Call and Response, two friends from Toronto, used to design clothes for Prince.

It's all samples, one of a kind.

We have these amazing rocker boots.

They're low, they get better with age, which I love about a product.

But we also have some boots that are a little bit lower-priced.

Some high, but then some of them have a low heel, which is more retro.

Wallets, we have, they're from recycled leather.

And then we have the little bags from San Francisco from the pop type of cans.

So Amber is wearing Call and Response on the gold pants with the fringes.

All handmade, one of a kind.

(lively music) The boots are from a very small company.

The top is also from Call and Response.

It has the fringes in the back.

It's a vest, it can stay open or closed.

Nothing under it sometimes is nice as well.

And a little tank top on top with that fun saying from a very small designer called Blondit.

(lively music continues) We have one wall that's photographs.

They're all black and white.

And then we have three pictures that are Bob Gruen, which I think that that's a big part of us and I just want the wall to continue to grow and change as well.

We do have a lot of musicians, it's Asbury Park.

It's sort of surprising, day to day, the people that will come in and buy something.

People that you would not really expect.

When a person puts something that we sell here on, I think it definitely brings out a different personality with them.

(lively music continues) It's definitely a niche and I feel like you have to be confident sometimes to wear something different.

But that's what I love about it, is day-to-day, meeting different people.

- Rocking your own style is something Philly fans know how to do.

Influencer Jocelyn Serious caught our eye with her custom-designed Eagles outfit.

Here with me now is Aidan Hernandez from Garden Vintage.

Aidan, welcome to "You Oughta Know."

- Hello, how are you?

- Doing great.

I love all this Philly gear that you've brought, but first tell me about what Garden Vintage is and how you came up with the idea for it.

- Garden Vintage, it's like a small business of mine.

We look and we find old clothes and we clean them if we need them to be cleaned, sew them together if needed and we sell them to people who want them today.

- And how did you come up with this idea?

- Honestly, it was through like social media when I was younger.

About 15, 21 now, handful of years ago.

- You're still very young.

(laughs) - (laughs) Yeah.

I see a lot of people wearing cool older clothes and you know, you wanna find them yourself.

- Talk to me about what you brought.

So first off, let's look at this sweatshirt because I just love this sweatshirt so much.

Not just because of the what's on the front, but the back is incredible.

So tell me about this.

- Yeah, so this sweatshirt is actually my grandfather's.

Yeah, it was given it to me quite some time ago.

And you know, I cherished it for a while, but it's my favorite one.

It's super cool.

The company that made that sweatshirt is no longer around.

It's from like 1993, you know, that kind of era.

- And then what about this jacket?

- Yeah, this jacket is super unique.

This is a like a regular basic denim jacket, but someone just loved football so much.

They put all these patches all over it.

And you can see that they're hand done, you know, got the Eagles one right in the middle - [Shirley] For sure.

- [Aidan] Yeah.

- [Shirley] Where it should be.

- Yeah, right.

It's a very unique item.

- And show me some of the stuff on the rack 'cause that jacket is speaking to me.

So I love this green jacket.

- Yeah, this one right here.

This is like an old satin jacket from Chalk Line.

This one's from the '80s and it's got these awesome patches all over it, including this huge spell out on the back.

Something you don't really see.

- So is there demand for this kind of clothing, this sort of vintage wear opposed to buying something new?

- Yeah, the vintage stuff is super in demand.

The Eagle stuff, I can barely keep my hands on when I do have it.

- Well, especially now.

- Yeah, exactly.

The Super Bowl's coming and not even just the Eagle stuff, everything vintage, very popular right now.

- Why do you think that is?

Just because people are looking for something more unique or individual?

- No, it's very unique, very individual, but also like the old made in USA clothes, people think it's better quality.

You know, something a little bit more like, you know, rugged.

- Okay, you have a shopping event coming up.

Tell me about that.

Give me some of the details.

- Yeah, so February 8th, we're gonna have a huge event at the Brooklyn Bowl in Fishtown and we're gonna fill it up with a bunch of clothes, not just Eagles stuff, but everything vintage, you know, Levi's, Carhartt, all that cool stuff.

- [Shirley] Oh, very neat.

Aidan, thank you so much.

- [Aidan] I appreciate it.

- From the gear to cheers, Philly fans are all in, but why are we like this?

Our digital studios producer, Kayla Watkins learned that Philly fans are cut from a different cloth.

- [Kayla] Who out there is emotionally, spiritually, fanatically invested in sports like Philly?

Now we've all seen the videos, heard the chants, and we see what people say about Philly because of it.

- Even if it is from Philadelphia.

- Go Eagles!

- Hope everyone's having a good Monday after Philadelphia.

I assumed you spent it sobering up on top of a bus shelter.

- [Kayla] As rival videos of Philly fans draw millions of views, we wanted to get to the bottom of one of life's great mysteries: Why are we like this?

Before the Super Bowl even existed, you know Philly fans were showing up.

Let's check out our Philly fan all stars.

We've heard tales from as early as 1930 where the Philadelphia As fans had a special greeting for our prohibition-supporting president Herbert Hoover at his first pitch: We want beer.

In 1968, fans actually paid for a plane to fly over Franklin Field with a message, "Joe must go," After former coach Joe Kuharich lost an opportunity to bring OJ to the Eagles.

1968 is also the year of the infamous Santa Claus incident, which started a long tradition of throwing snowballs onto the field.

This tradition would later include a cheese steak, batteries, beer, even cancer tribute bracelets.

A 1997 incident where a New Jersey's Eagles fan shoots a flare gun into empty stadium seats led to the formation of the Eagles Court at the vet with Joe Seamus McCaffrey.

Even more recently, in 2018, an intoxicated fan punched a police horse (horse whinnies) and more viral videos appear each season.

There has got to be some explanation for this behavior.

I mean, other cities have passionate fans and they turn up too, but none are like Philly.

Who better to tell us why Philadelphia fans are so enthusiastic than the fans themselves?

- The passion, the upbringing, you know, goes down from generation to generation.

- It's in our blood.

That's it.

- It's in our DNA.

We can't help it.

- We have unity, we're cohesive.

- The Eagles bring us all together.

You know, we're the home of the underdogs.

We needed something like this to bring us all together and the Eagles have been our champions.

- It's a Philly thing.

Come on, man.

- [Kayla] Philly sports fans are part of a multi-team story spanning decades.

Glen Macnow co-authored "The Great Philadelphia Fan Book" to explore that history.

We have been asking all over Philly, why are Philly fans like this?

- You got a week?

(Kayla laughs) So much of this is historical, but the quick version is that people who grew up in this town grew up for years, decades of seeing their teams lose, break their hearts, and disappoint.

That built both a tough hide and a little bit of sense of resentment and also built up an incredible loyalty so that when those teams do win, this city can explode in a good way like no other.

Remember, the Eagles had not won a championships since 1960 before 2017.

So if you were a teenager in 1960, you're collecting social security by the time they win the next one.

It's so handed down from grandfather to son to grandson or grandmother to daughter to granddaughter.

It's such a generational thing in Philadelphia that I know that when they finally won in 2017, people who got to share that with their dad, with their mom, with their grandparents, it was really special.

These are the people who, generation to generation, love and appreciate kind of an heirloom, which is what the team is to this city.

- [Kayla] We know Philly fans can be passionate, but that energy is driven by a multi-generational and steadfast devotion to their homegrown teams.

Philly fans rep their teams even through their losses, no matter how long they have to wait for a win.

Despite all Philly fan horror stories, when players step out into the field and they hear the cheering of the crowd, they know for sure that they earned it.

We don't know what'll happen on Sunday, but we do know that the fans will be there singing our fight song.

♪ Fly, Eagles, fly ♪ ♪ On the road to victory ♪ ♪ E-A-G-L-E-S ♪ ♪ Eagles ♪ - Philly fans are truly one of a kind.

All right, now we are gonna leave you with some picks from some of the Eagle's younger fans who are rooting for the home team.

Good night, everyone.

And of course, go Birds.

♪ Fly, Eagles, fly ♪ ♪ On the road to victory ♪ (upbeat music)