Between Two Rivers [antikvár]

One who reads the book on the territory between the two rivers and enjoys looking at the photos can get acquainted with the largest county of the country, Bács-Kiskun county better and more carefijily than ever before. I can suggest reading the book to anybody who has not visited Bács-Kiskun county either on business or because of curiousity. 1 hope that one would know more about this sceneiy and Its diligent inhabitants after reading the book. The names of the towns that one must have heard in connection with some news or must have seen on the map now become lively; many may be Inspired to read books on the topic or visit the attractive sights and the historical relics. Those who hail from here may read It with affectionate interest. The artistic photos, the moody descriptions of the scenery and the historical remembrance may recall the memories of the childhood and adolescence. The onetime citizens of our region may be rejoiced by the happiness of remembrance, the recognition of the changes and growth. The creators of the book must have considered people living here most of the time. They can experience the everyday changes together with the creators day by day, they realize how our small land passes over fi-om yesterday to tomon-ow. They have memories of their own about the past few decades and the old natural surrounding which is so dear for eveiybody. They can see the result of their sufferings and sacrifice: they can experience how the sandy soil became a garden and see the photos of the preserved monuments, the new public buildings, the flowery villages. They can feel that the county between the two rivers Is their own, while reading about the initiatives of the ancestors, about their reliability and the studies on the natural and human values, just as we get to know the worid not In one as a whole but in small details, for many people one smaller region or a memory may remain about Bács-Kiskun county. 1 am just like them: when arriving at Solt through the Danube, I feel at home. For others Töserdö or the Petőfi house In Kiskörös or a farmstead may cause the same feeling but a nice forest at the riverside or the plain of Bócsa can also bring iibout the same feeling. It is likely to be quite natural: the county or the homeland are a unity of all these "mosaics", the diversity of "farmstead homeland". This book is also composed of the diversity of mosaics, photos and the texts to the photos, setting up the county so that one can discover Bács-Kiskun country, the county that many people in the country and over the borders like so much. Dr. László Balogh, the president of Bács-Kiskun county's General Assembiy The largest county in the country V ineyards iinci the scarred surface of saliferous fields, backwardness and great initiatives, international roads and footpaths strolling from one lonely farmhouse to another - is Bács-Kiskun, the county of extremes. National cold and hot records In temperature v^iere measured here. Thousands of farmers struggle with drought, though the area is embraced by two rivers. Although the families used to have a reputation for having many children, it is this region where the density of population is the lowest. Along with the rapid urbanization, many houses, sometimes new settlements were built in the countryside, far away from towns and villages. Secondary or higher education Wcis not within easy reach of these remote places, nevertheless miiny of the eminent personalities of Hungarian science and art have their roots in Bács-Kiskun county. The writer of the first hiilf of the century, Zsigmond Móricz was quite justly enthusiastic about the villages of Kiskunság, with all the gardens around the houses, which he regarded as the wortóng people's model-area. But there were other parts of this region, where nature's miseriiness made life very hard. Fifty years ago hundreds of thousands of people lived without electricity. Two decades ago the foreign film-makers who came here to depict the old-time life of the people could hardly find a part of the fields free from electric poles. Since then the gas-distributors and the shiny spherical watertanks have also become a part of the scenery. Scenery in Bacska with a farn^-house.