I'm squeaky thanks to German ingenuity

I got the shoes exchanged with no problem at Dillards--they didn't even require the receipt, although I had it. Apparently I am a size 39 in European size, or at least have to go up to it because of the width of my foot.

After I got back to the bus stop near my home, I thought I owed a fine at the library so stopped there, but I didn't owe one after all. (I think I gave the book back in the morning before they opened up, on the day after it was due, so it was okay because of the timing.

On the way home I had to stop, because my feet were hurting up into my leg, and my foot was supining (is that a word?) all over the place. So I stopped right there in the middle of the road, between the two parts of the car lot, and took off my shoes and socks and put the Birkenstocks on.

I can only say they were an instant hit. I wore them with knee-high hose home and then went back out for a soda from the laundry room without anything else on my foot. I became aware at that point that they were squeaking. I suspect this is the cork in the sole expelling air as the foot presses against it, breaking it in.

Anyway, I'm happy. We'll see if my pain goes away in a week or so.

PS I have not been able to find out any information about whether or not the Birkenstock company (which has been around in some form or another for centuries) was involved in Nazism or not. I would be interested in any credible evidence anyone has for or against. I don't want to discriminate against a company just because it is German--there's a lot of good that's come out of Germany as well, but there are certain companies that I have researched that I would not patronise due to their Jewish and American POW slave labour use during World War II, or at least those that have not admitted their guilt and made some recompsense to their victims or their families. On the other hand, companies in America are not necessarily free of that association (there used to be an IBM (now LexMark) factory here in Lexington, for example. IBM and its counting machines have been linked to the Holocaust because said machines made it easier to track Jews and other people for deportation to the camps.) I'm sure my computer, although manufactured by Hewlitt-Packard, contains something of IBM in it. But I do try to avoid overt cases when I know about them. I don't think the fact that terrible things were done decades ago mean you necessarily get a free pass, and I think the present environmental, labour, and human rights records of a company need to be more transparent than many are, in order to make good consumer judgements, but that may just be me.

Anwyay, for now I plan on enjoying them for being the comfy shoes they are.