page 49 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

Buck turned to see Jeff and Hearn coming through the space between the tool shed and the smokehouse. He pulled loose from Coke and went out to meet them. They were shifting their eyes self-consciously as they came close in their faded hickory shirts and once-blue overalls that were growing tight on both their behinds.

I asked myself,"What's a 'hickory shirt'?" The dictionary definition is a shirt made of a strong twilled cotton fabric with vertical stripes and used especially for work clothing.

I like this comment I got off the Web:  "It also is called the railroad shirt and the fabric is known as hickory fabric, a relative of denim and as durable as hickory wood. One could say this is the shirt that built this country."

from the July 29, 1911 Dothan Eagle

from the April 5, 1961 Troy Messenger