For Greg and Donnie Young of 506 Locust St., collecting antique artifacts reminds them of a simpler time when a community banned together.

The couple’s garage is adorned with antique collectables like bow saws, cotton scale weights, and coal-oil lanterns used on trains.

Inside the house, there is a wall riddled with old toy-model cars Greg got when a dealership went out of business, and antique clocks.

“It’s all about history,” Donnie said. “Sometimes you like to turn the clock back and think about the hands that made these things.”

Greg said he started collecting about 13 years ago.

“I just collected odds and ends here and there, go to different auctions and flea markets and it’s gotten a little bigger as time has gone on,” he said.

Greg said he collects different items rather than the same of one item.

“I like to be a rounded person, Greg said. “If you fool with just one thing you only know more about that one thing but if you collect many different things you can learn a little bit about everything.”

Donnie said she and Greg buy books and search the Internet to find information about much of the items, but the best source she says comes from word of mouth.

“We had a man come in who was remodeling our cabinets and he happened to see our old cotton weights,” she said.

Donnie said the man told her and Greg about little holes underneath the weights used for putting lead in them.

“He pointed at the little one and said there was probably a little weight in there and sure enough there was. So there was something we didn’t know.”

Greg and Donnie are remodeling their home so they have boxed up many of the collectables and stored them in the attic.

“He says we need to get another place to put all our stuff and I always get on to him about collecting but I’m as bad as he is,” Donnie said laughing.

Greg said he and Donnie hope to one day pass on the antiques to their five children.

Three of their children that are married come over and try to claim the items, Donnie said.

“They fight over who’s going to get the stuff like a set of Tiffany’s glasses we have,” she said.