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
could lay their hands on. 2 '' 1 Such events substantially rattled up the serenity of the once peaceful little settlements' residents every dme, so thev came to expect resolute steps from their leaders. Summary Fundamentally, Zala County can be listed among counties with a small-village settlement structure, where the county's villages would have ranked among setdement types that could only have been developed with difficulty - if at all - without the oil industry boom at the beginning of the 20th century, then the second wave of the same during its middle. The reason is that such village forms were less suitable for introducing industry on account of difficult accessibility and the lack of infrastructure. 3 ' 1 " Owing to the "black gold" lying underground, however, the prerequisite for establishing a factory, and thereby employment opportunity was given. In the period when agricultural cooperatives were being organised, the workforce uptake effect of towns and cities was not validated here due to local industry, as opposed to nationwide tendencies. In Gellénháza, 90% of families worked at the company, a further 5% in Zalaegerszeg—also in the oil industry, 5% had a job at the Handicraft Company, and the 'Zöldmező' Agricultural Cooperative had just 178 members. 301 Looking at these figures it is clear to see that as opposed to the former, fundamentally agrarian society, a large group of blue-collar workers, performing similar trained labour for close to identical wages, also appeared in the village. According to surveys, 36% of workers were trained general workers, and of them 68% came from a rural background.'" 2 This data needs no further explanation, since agriculture was the livelihood of rural society during previous centuries, it had no need for any other profession besides a knowledge of the land and its cultivation. In the economic situation created by the change in farming's scope, however, there was an appreciation of certain trades —such as carpentry, stonemasonry, water-gas mains repair, electric repair; or in the case of girls, hairdressing, service behind the counter, etc. Parents' experiences prompted children to learn trades, and thus the role of the garden and subsidiary husbandry was relegated to a secondary economic role in their lives/'"' In Gellénháza, where one may observe the almost 100% appreciation of industrial work in relation to farming, it is hardly surprising that the majority of parents wanted their children to take jobs in some kind of office or learn a trade. 3 " 4 Women - who worked around the house previously - starting to take on jobs, and families thus becoming double income ones, meant a further change in the society of the sixties. Some 9000 people were employed at the oil companies that operated in Zala County, 2000 of whom were working women, performing services related tasks primarily. Some of them had office jobs, others worked in kitchens or were employed as cleaning-staff. The particular forms of industrialisation in the countryside, in other words the sections of companies with city headquarters sited to villages, also played a major role in women's employment. -" ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, November 9, 1963. HÁNTÓ - KÁRPÁTI 1982,296. J( " ZMI. Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, |une 13, 1968. m VALUCH 2001, 225. m MN, 2000,988. "" ZMI. Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, April 18, 1968.
