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

The socialist construction industry, which was given an ever increasing role from the 1960s, created something totally new with the cube houses. It was not just the appearance, form and internal arrangement of houses that changed, but even the layout of their yards. Barns were no longer built for dwelling houses constructed on new plots, and the exisdng ones were demolished on many older building plots. Because of the growing importance of subsidiary husbandry on the plot, sties were, but stables often were no longer needed, thus it was not uncommon that they were converted to garages in the wake of car purchases that started to boom from the 1970s.

285 Since cube houses were usually built instead of old ones in Gellénháza, the farm structures were given, and used with the exception of barns. Even today; the old sties - built at the start of the century - are still standing in the courtyards of several houses. In addition to socialist construction industry, the socialist system further regulated and thus made uniform not just houses, but courtyards and front-courts as well - and in turn the appearance of streets - in the scope of the "Build and beautify our villages" contest movement. The cleanliness movement also took a foothold in Gellénháza, and as an increasing number of houses were built, public education work was deployed to an ever greater degree in the interest of getting as many people to join the movement as possible, in which the houses of successful participants were marked with a recognition sign stating "Cleanly courtyard, orderly house". The competition was open to the owners of new and older houses alike, provided they met the requirements, namely: poultry was not allowed to peck about freely in the yard, instead they had to be shut in the backyard which in turn was fenced off from the grass covered section; if possible, a flower garden had to be planted in front of houses in- and outside the fence; and wells needed to be properly closed so that nothing could fall in them, thus their water could be kept clean. Something else that counted was the cleanliness and orderliness homeowners kept in the cock-loft, the courtyard, the stable, around the outhouse, the disinfecting of which with chlorine or DDT was advisable.

286 The success rate of the movement was, however, held back bv debris from demolished old houses and waste material from new house construction, which deteriorated the way the village looked significantly, being spread out on the street.

28 The sight of unplastered houses did not advance successful participation in the contest either, therefore the EC resolved to deploy agitation work, so as to promote the opportunity of taking out ( )TP loans to front 90% of plastering costs among residents.

288 Clean and well-groomed houses took a highlighted role in the system of arguments used lor public education work; offering a healthier street image where light and culture can spread better, as the teaching had it.

289 Besides the building and beautification of houses and their surroundings, making the village's streets more attractive also comprised a part of the program. According to the things set forth in the documents, the reason for this was that Gellénháza had substantial tourism due to its industrial nature,

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" which probably entailed visits bv delegations arriving to the factory, thus in the senior officials' opinion - a disorganised village accepting those arriving was intolerable. Planting trees and creating parks was agreed for the sake of improving the village's appearance, ;s; VALUCH 2001,298. :M

' ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes ot meeting, ( )ctober 17, 1968. 28 ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, December 7, 1962. :

™ ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, May 25, 1963. 2m ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, April 13,1967. -'" ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, March 7, 1968.