Dave Williams didn’t play with Legos when he was a kid.“I had wooden blocks, Lincoln Logs, and an erector set,” said Williams, a retired teacher.For the past seven or eight years, he’s been catching up on his Lego time. Legos are known for building, and also as tiny, colorful, interlocking blocks that generations of parents have feared stepping on. Williams has spent these recent years using his patience to erect Lego buildings, some with miniature interior scenes.He selects kits from the Lego City collection. The kits are put together with anywhere from 395 to 4,800 pieces, depending on size and detail. Williams said his most complex model, the firehouse from “Ghostbusters,” required a partner and a couple months to complete. Other models from the Lego City collection, take him about a week.“I work about an hour at a time. You can’t go much longer or your fingers start getting sore,” Williams said.Williams, of Warrenton, volunteers at the Warren County Health Department Fitness Center as a fitness instructor for seniors. He also volunteers with the Wright City Fire Protection District. He helps firefighters while they are putting out fires.Building mini cities with Legos is a hobby that volunteers with the Warren County Historical Society found out about. They invited Williams to bring his collection to the museum for a public viewing. The collection is on display at the museum until May 26.His love for Legos started nearly eight years ago, when he was being treated for cancer. He was being cared for by a friend. The friend had a 6-year old son who had a Lego collection. The two of them formed a friendship while they locked Lego pieces together. Building didn’t end after the families moved to separate towns. Rather, it became more elaborate. They created a Lego town with a Lego train and train track running through it.“We just kept doing it. We just kept extending it,” Williams said.The Lego train is part of the display at the museum. Its passenger cars were the hardest to put together, Williams said.“Getting those windows in there, getting those things to fit, to me, was the hardest thing to do,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I put them in wrong before I got them right.”The “Ghostbusters” firehouse, “was one of the hardest ones but one of the most interesting ones,” he said.Williams mostly builds his Lego City kits on his own. He said neighborhood kids like to visit, to test how fast the Lego train can go.Sometimes, after a model is put together, he has an extra piece or needs an extra piece. He doesn’t fret about it. He said with Legos, people can always take something apart and rebuild it.He said Legos bring out the kid in him.“We’re still going,” Williams said. “How big the city’s going to get in the end, I don’t know.”Williams’s Lego collection is on display until May 26. The museum is located at 102 W. Walton in Warrenton, and is open from 10 to 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free.For more information call 636-456-3820 or email museum@warrencountymohistory.com.

Dave Williams, Warrenton, has his Lego collection on display at the Warren County Historical Society Museum until May 26.

Record photo/Kate Miller