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

and drink onlv after them, which shoppers sought more whenever it ran out at the people's store and the tap-house. Gin, 'rum mixed' and straight rum meant 10-15% of the coffee shop's HUF 60,000 turnover a month.

2 2 Apart from one of the grocery stores, which was located near the village centre, the rest were in the new, oil industry secdon, and presumably realised most of its turnover from purchases made bv oil workers, as well as their family members. Evolution of the village infrastructure In addidon to the stores, it was the improvement of the village's own infrastructure that was most felt in the everyday lives of inhabitants. After the housing development, gas also reached the village proper in 1957, which allowed for providing state-of-the-art heating and cooking energy for homes. The gas mains was only available in 72% of households at this time, but the network was being extended continuously.

2 1 By 1959, gas arrived to some of the neighbouring villages, thus for example to Gombosszeg, which had no school, nor a store, but a couple of its houses already boasted gas. Of the 462 homes in Lickóvadamos, there was electricity in 426, as well as gas in 280. Apart from Nagylengyel, however, the gas mains did not as yet reach the vast majority of neighbouring settlements at this time.

2 4 In just a couple of years, though, the network was constructed to such an extent that it made the county the nationwide leader in the ratio of access to gas energy in households.

271 Despite the fact that the number of houses with electricity and gas was roughly the same in the second half of the 50s, the level of electric lighting supply in the village households can be considered somewhat more underdeveloped compared to the oil industry housing project. 2 6 The dissatisfaction - which can also be discovered in the EC. minutes of meeting quoted earlier (ZML Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, February 1,1966) - could have been rooted in the fact that while heating and cooking could be solved with wood, thus lacking gas was not such a burning issue, yet the oil-lamp was the alternative to electric lighting. Lamp oil, however, was only available for purchase in allocated small quantities and its illuminating power was far smaller than that oi electricity. In 1957, what were called BSH-houses and the row of houses running up to the grocery store were electrified apart from the oil housing development, therefore EC members were urging the supply of electric power to the other half of the village.

2 Bv the second half of the 60s, electricity and gas coverage in the village can be said to have been total; running water, on the other hand, was still onlv to be had in 60% of homes. Compared to the national average, this still counted as a high proportion, taking into account the fact that running water was onlv introduced to homes in villages starting from the 1970s. Previously mud ridden main roads were paved in Gellénháza during the 1950s, the side streets, however, continued to be dirt covered, and there were no constructed sidewalks anywhere. : : /.Ml. Gellénháza Milage Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, February 1, 1966. 273 FENYVESI 1987. KSI I 1959. 174 KSH 1959 :

'• MAGYAR • NÉMETI I 1975, 38. 376 KSI1 1959 • ZMI. Gellénháza Village Council Executive Committee minutes of meeting, ]anuary 26, 1957.