It was an anachronistic scene as half-a-dozen horses and wagons came clomping in a 19th century rhythm up to the mirrored, ultramodern BioPark building at 4 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on September 20. They were there, along with about a hundred guests already inside the building, to celebrate Donald “China” Waugh, who worked Baltimore’s streets for 65 years as an arabber, selling food and other goods from the back of a horse-drawn wagon, a tradition that has remained in Baltimore for more than two centuries. Organized by Waugh’s daughter, Sonia Eaddy, the event raised money for Stable Baltimore, an organization that promotes the quality and availability of produce in food deserts and the trauma-healing properties of horsemanship. It also celebrated Waugh’s 90th birthday and the legacy and future of the arabber tradition, while also honoring those who have been lost, such as Bilal Abdullah, who was shot and killed by Baltimore Police in June.
Eaddy read a proclamation from the mayor’s office honoring Waugh to the crowd. “I wanted to give him his flowers while he’s still here,” she said of the celebration.
Waugh “would not take a birthday party,” Eaddy said, “but when I mentioned the horses, he showed up.”
“When I was coming up, a horse and wagon was all over Baltimore City,” said Waugh, tall, thin, and spritely, in a denim sport coat. “The milk company had horse and wagons over Linden Avenue to deliver milk to your house. Horse and wagons that sold ice, coal, and wood… the most important thing was the arabbers because people ate off the wagons because we sold everything. We sold all kinds of stuff on the wagon.”
“Everything we get is fresh because we go right to the market where you get it from, put it right on the wagon and you go right on the street with it. The supermarket don’t do that. They get it at the same place we did but they take it and put it in a cold box and then in the supermarket and people come and pick all over it,” Waugh said.
Stable Baltimore promotes the life skills that come with caring for horses and, over his 65 years of working with the animals, Waugh learned the streets of the city, the characters of its people, and plenty of more specialized skills.
“I learned how to shoe the horses — back in the days, people would go to blacksmiths to get their shoes put on. I used to watch the blacksmiths trimming their feet up, and I learned it and I used to shoe my own horses and other people’s horses,” Waugh said, to cheers from other old-timers. “There’s so many things I’ve done with a horse and wagon, and if you ever work on a horse wagon, you will love it because you are constantly meeting all kinds of people and have a good time.”
Levar Mullen, an arabber at the Carlton Street Stable and a cofounder of Stable Baltimore, spoke about the future of arabbing in Baltimore and about the loss of Bilal Abdullah, known as BJ, who was the definition of “horse crazy” and traversed every inch of the city selling produce over the years. “They could hear us coming from three blocks away.”
The event was the first time many of the old-time arabbers had seen each other in years and had the quality of a family reunion, with a wide swath of the larger community in attendance as well.
“All you people in here sitting around, you don’t realize how grateful we are, being an arabber, to see you here because I can see a lot of love and a lot of respect throughout this audience of people in here,” said Sonny Diggs. “I’m blessed to be here today honoring my great friend China. I don’t know what y’all call him, but I’ll always call him my best friend.”
Baynard Woods helped organize the event along with Nicole King, who is a co-director at The Orser Center for Public Humanities at UMBC, a sponsor of the event.
