I was born in Gartcosh and lived in the old fireclay village (a row of houses, when I say houses maybe I should say "rooms" because, thats really what they were - no indoor toilets just a midden at the rear between the row of house, railway line and fireclay works) next to the works ( I remember playing in the midden cause its what one did to entertain oneself, no computers back then). My father was a fireman (as in making fires, not putting them out) and remember being taken to his place of employment on his night-shifts, even used his shovel to throw coke/coal onto the fire and sitting drinking tea from a tin can (a means of what one used to drink their tea from in those days) with loads of sugar (when we could afford it and sometimes even with milk). He even tried to show me the trick of swinging the can full of hot tea around in a circular motion using the handle of the tin and bringing the can to a stop with it's contents (hot tea) still there in the tin. It was a means used to cool the tea to a level that one could drink. To me it made complete sense as I was forever managing to stick my lips to the can and burn my nose in the hot tea. Mind you, it took sometime before I mastered the art of swinging the can, more times than often, I'd cover him (my father and anyone else for that matter that happened to be within range) with scolding tea.
with many thanks to N. Pickering for the above.