Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)
Zsuzsa Kovács: The Oil Age and Its Impact on Everyday Village Life In Zala County's Settlements
Zsuzsa Kovács Göcsej Museum "The grounds where the oilers are now, all of that used to be our village land" Everyday life in Gellénháza in the period of the oil industry boom Introduction After 1945, the lifestyle of the people in villages started to become increasingly more different from the everyday life of villagers from previous centuries, as the number of folks living in the villages who made a livelihood purely out of agricultural work became smaller and smaller. 24 ' The reason for this was that the socialist reorganisation of agriculture transformed the most fundamental activities - tilling and animal husbandry - in a final wav. Agricultural cooperative based farming changed the system, as well as the scale of land use around villages and that of farms, while working criteria and the order ot everyday life did not remain untouched either next to this. The history of the wav of life in the second half of the 20th century, however, cannot be treated as a homogenous unit, instead we can break it down into two periods that are distinct from one another. The first one lasts until the second half of the sixties - the old traditions still apply here, modest modernisation can be seen, and the role of self-sufficiencv is still significant. As oi the second half of the sixties, however, the fundamental changes impacting village society become cjuite spectacular. Drawing away from traditions became increasingly fast from this time onwards, the effects of modernisation become more apparent, self-sufficiency is much more moderate, resulting in the strong growth of consumption. 2 "' As one of the eifects of modernisation, electrification brought the most marked change in the life of the countryside, lights could be turned on after dark fell on streets and in homes alike, thus daytime could be elongated, the time of evening work extended, and families could have more time for chores around the house after spending 8 hours at their paid workplaces, fdectric household appliances were fast becoming more and more popular, simplifying and shortening household chores, which was something that was much needed as women took on jobs. Bus transportation - which was launched as asphalt pavement took the place of dirt roads connected any number of small settlements that were previously landlocked into the circulation of regular transportation, and thus made the daily commute to towns even several kilometres awav possible. All of these effects also appeared in Zala County, but besides the socialist transformation of the economy, oil production had the greater impact on how lifestyle changed in the settlements situated on the oilfield or in its vicinity :j ' SZtllAV 1996, 7(15. :i " VALUCH 2001,281-282
