They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed
through a brief blossoming-period of beauty and sexual desire, they married
at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at
sixty.Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with
neighbours, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon
of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult."