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“’Name’s Danny Buckley. B_K_L_E_Y”. Admittedly, a man of few words– Danny is probably among the most well recognized people in McAlester; yet a man that so many of us know so little about.
We have seen him walking nearly every afternoon, on every street around down town McAlester. Danny can be spotted on South A Street and then over on Carl Albert, and later on South Avenue– all in the same four or five hour work day; but he’s likely to turn up almost anywhere in town.
He carries the simple tools of his trade; a white plastic trash bag, a green “grabber” device, and a cane which he uses to help him walk. Danny is Developmentally Disabled; (D.D.). He will tell you he is D.D. but doesn’t know any more about his condition. His daily walks from his Third Ward home puts him in search of yet another elusive; discarded, aluminum can.
Today he has already walked well over a mile, and has five cans in his bag. That’s one can for nearly every half mile. His favorite faded green t-shirt, bares the image of a large, well washed cross, now hard to distinguish. The badly frayed collar seems to frame his face; sun beaten and worn, and the tops of his ears are pealing. He walks with a noticeable limp, and his bushy gray eyebrows reflect the sun. “That’s my church!” Danny says proudly as we drive past “The King’s House” on 124 V Hubert Smith Dr, several blocks from his home. “Sure went up quick… The other church burned down.” he reports; “Did your church ever burn down?”
Besides picking up cans, Danny says he likes to go to this church because “the people there are nice.” “They do nice things for me.” he shares: but can’t recall at the moment what.
”I go to church every Sunday.” he goes on; “Felix is a pretty good pastor.”(long pause); “He talks a lot about church.” A few minutes later; “Here’s my house!” Danny exclaims.
The small house is clad in clean vinyl siding and has a detached garage. In the well kept yard; a rusted shopping buggy, filled with bags of cans, and several more bags of cans on the grass all around. He says he collects cans “to gave me something to do, I guess.”- “I’ve been collecting cans since the accident.” he remembers.
Danny used to live in this house with his parents and an older brother; Mike Buckley, but his parents passed away, leaving the two brothers alone in their family home. He reckons the accident happened about four years ago; “Me and my brother were walkin’ and this guy in a white truck hit us; he was textin’.” “This guy in the white truck was textin’ and hit my brother first, and then he hit me.” Danny says. “It all happened so fast.” “My brother saved me.” “I guess my brother passed away…I guess he did… I didn’t hear too much about that.” He goes on; repeating the sentence twice.“They life flied me to Tulsa.” “They life flied me to Tulsa.” “I had a lot of things wrong with me!”
Pam Rivas, has been Danny’s volunteer caregiver for 14 years. She is not a relative, nor does she work for an agency. If you would like to be there too for Danny some way, you can contact Pam by email: pam_rivas@yahoo.com.
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