W 044 F

Introduction
I was born on 8 April 1979 in Nagykanizsa. Now I am in my first English major at Janus Pannonius University in Pécs. I have undergone a significant change during the past 18 years - I have grown from a small child into a young adult.

At the same time the world around me has also changed. The political position and the way of thinking have altered, the industrial technology and agriculture have developed. Society, the mentality of the people, education, sporting life and fashion have become different. But we can follow these changes with the help of the media.

Browsing among the issues about the events of my birthday, I knew what the political situation and economic conditions were like, what the public security was like, how the people could spend their free time, how they were dressed and what their culture was like. Therefore I could form a notion of the life of the people who lived when I was born.

This paper attempts to report what a Hungarian citizen was like at the end of 70’s. I am going to show my idea about the way of life at that time. I demonstrate the political and economic life, the sports activity, the crime, the leisure activities, the clothes and culture.

Method
After gathering together the issues about the occurences of 8th April, I had to choose some of them that I wanted to deal with. I selected the issues that not only illustrate a happening of my birthday, but they can be generally valid somehow. Consequently, they properly describe the era and the society as well.

Then I had to systematize the chosen issues in some way. I decided that I would classify the issues into different categories such as political life; sports; crime; culture - the programmes of the television and radio, clothing; and entertainment - cinema and lottery.

Results and Discussions

Political life
Hungary was a socialist country around the 70’s. It was, however, very different from the states of the Eastern bloc: it provided the freedom of human rights and avoided using demagogic pressure.

We can find international reports and stories about the socialist states as well as the capitalist states in Hungarian newspapers.

Népszabadság reported that Somoza dictator went on holiday to the United States because of the galling combats in Nicaragua. The rebels fought against his dictatorship. Somoza arrived at Bronsville, Texas on Sunday afternoon.

In the same place the readers can read about the statement of Heng Samrin saying that the institutions of the revolutionan administration have already founded in every territory of Cambodia.

After five days the readers can find an information about the Palestinian Liberation Organization saying that its members decided on organizing an extraordinary conference to bring about the national union. (Mi történt a világpolitikában?)

Another text informs the readers about the president of the Romanian republic, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife who travelled to Libya with other governmental persons. (Külföldi események - néhány sorban)

Sisana Sisane Laotion Information Secretary said that the Laotion - Chinese conflict is in immediate contact with the Vietnamese - Chinese conflict. The situation between Laos and China grew worse because of Nixon and the Chinese - American reconciliation. The aim of China is to retain the unity of the socialist countries. (Laoszi miniszter a kínai célokról)

Szonoda Szuano Japanese Foreign Secretary had talks with his American countrypart, Cyrus Vance about China, Indo-China, ASEAN states, the Middle East and the bilateral relations. (Szonoda Washingtonban)

The news shows that the world was a dangerous place, where the political conditions seemed to be revolting and confused. In many countries bloody battles were going on. At the same time the states tried to establish diplomatic relations to sign the piece. Although Hungarian inhabitants could follow the events with the help of the newspapers, they stayed away from the politics, and withdraw into their private lives and work.

People wanted to raise the standard of living. They had got the possibilities because the particular model of agriculture stopped the farmer food shortages providing higher average and crops. I found an effective example for the successful output. I presented the figures in tabular form. There were three influential companies in Zala county that took part in planned economy successfully. Hungary had wide foreign trade relations with many states. It had business contact with not only the socialist but the capitalist states as well. (Teljesült elsõ negyedévi tervek - See Figure 1)

Sports
Hungary had an active, famous sporting life. The Hungarian sportsmen and sportswomen were appreciated and well-known all over the world.

Citizens had numerous possibilities to watch sport programmes. On my birthday there were matches in football, table-tennis, handball, basketball, volleyball, fencing and chess. (Vasárnapi sportmûsor)

Joachim Deckharm a West German sportsman was seriously injured on the handball - cup tie in Tatabánya. On Sunday he still laid unconscious and got medicial treatment. (Deckharm állapota változatlan)

Zalaegerszeg organized the Chess championship female zone tournament and the Second Zala cup male grandmaster tournament. The championship was followed with great interest. (Szoros mérkõzések)

Crime
Searching among the old newspapers I was surprised to read how limited was crime in Hungary in 1979. I usually found reports and information about serious accidents, and only a few accounts about burglaries, robberies or murders.

I spotted a report on a French policeman who killed a female hitchhiker and injured three other persons. Alain Lamarre, 23, worked for the police unit that searched for the killer. He stole 15 cars and put an explosive bomb into two of them. The police could arrest him after 10 months when one of the stolen car had a breakdown on the motorway. Alain called a mechanic who gave a description about him to the police and a policeman recognized him. He wanted to revenge himself on the police because he was unfairly disciplined. (Csendõrbõl lesz a „legjobb” rabló?)

Culture
The up-to-dateness in everyday life was conducive to the improvement of the standard-of living. In the Hungarian household the manual washing was changed by the washing-machine and the washing soap was replaced by artificial detergent. The hoover and the refrigerator became usual. The general use of television had great significance.

The programmes of television and radio were always shown in the daily papers. In 1979 the citizens could watch the broadcastings of the Hungarian television as well as the Yugoslavian and the Austrian television.

Among the Hungarian programmes there were some characteristics that became features of the era. Every morning at 7. 25 and every evening at 18.50 people could do exercises watching Tévétorna . It is remarkable that 5-minute-news was only three times a day and 10-minute-advertisements were twice a day. A memorable programme was Delta, a documentary series with Kudlik Júlia, a popular presenter. Sunday evenings A hét has summarized the news of the whole week until now.

Hungary had three radio stations in 1979: Kossuth, Petõfi and 3. Radio. The listeners could enjoy the vivid, varied and amusing broadcastings of the stations. They could listen to classical music, light music - pop, jazz and south-american rhythms, charts, literary plays, poems, radio plays and folk-songs. (Mûsorkalauz)

Other accessories of the Western way of life also came to Hungary. The rock music entered and groups were founded. The fashion of Western Europe produced the sportshoes. jeans and
But ‘Farmerban vagy farmerben?’ This strange question was asked by a careful reader who usually used the term ‘farmerben’ and he or she was shocked to hear the term ‘farmerban’. The reader wanted to know which term is right. The answer was: both, but the newspaper (Népszabadság) prefers using suffixes with deep sounds. (Mondd és írd)

The fashion of 1979 was considerably different from the previous years. The most significant expectation was the femininity. The women wore softly pleated skirts from flowered dress material with comfortable blouses or pullovers. Red, blue, egg-shell colour were the most favourite colours. (Tavaszi divat a nõiesség jegyében)

Entertainment
In the cinemas appeared the films from the Western countries, among them the artistic works of French, Italian and American directors, who represented modern trends. In the Hungarian movies there were showings at 16, 18 and 20 o’ clock. Matiné was a performance in the mornings.

I collected together the films of the cinemas of 8 towns (Hévíz, Keszthely, Lenti, Letenye, Nagykanizsa, Zalaegerszeg, Zalalövõ, Zalaszentgrót). I found eleven pictures. These films belonged to seven different states. I counted how many percentage of the pictures is American, English, French, Hungarian, Italian, Soviet and Swedish. You can see my findings in Figure 2. (Mûsorkalauz)

Lottery
The results of the lottery were published in the newspapers. With the help of Figure 3 you can see the results of the 1th playing week of 1979. (Lottó tájékoztató)

Conclusion
Socialism was condemned and thought to be harmful by many people. The members of the government wanted to see contented citizens, and they hoped to be assisted by the inhabitants. They tried to employ as many people as possible.

The government organized the entertainment and company life of the people as well. Exhibitions were opened, new films were presented, many books were published. Everything was at a reasonable price - the culture was attainable.

Inhabitans had more opportunities to go out and enjoy themselves. To spend an evening in a cinema or in the theatre cost less money. Not only the youth but the old went to dance with their friends. The firms and companies organized trips and ceremonies.

People lived in relative good circumstances because the planned economy worked in a suitable way. Hungary had a high standard of sporting life with plenty of competitions and victories. The life of the people was less busy and dangerous because of the low number of the crimes.