This opened Dillard's eyes to see things for more than just what they are. A road isn't just some pavement and a name. A road is something someone goes through a lot of pain and suffering to build and the name of it has to go through some sort of process before becoming official. Dillard's mother truly appreciates and analyzes the work and knowledge gone into a lot of things. When the Ivory soap sales were successful, the executives were horrified. The soap floated. A lump of soap isn't supposed to float. The company decided to advertise that the soap floats and ostentatiously showed it. The company was successful. Dillard's mother thought this was smart. She knew that soap wasn't supposed to float and she appreciated the honesty and intelligent way of trying to advertise it and flaunt it to get people to buy it. Her mother truly appreciated the way things were made and thought of. She would constantly show her children the different things that were intelligent and would tell them why she believed they were intelligent inventions. Her mother even invented her own things. .
Dillard's mother had more than just appreciation for others intelligence. She had her own strong amount of intelligence herself. She would look at something as simple as a corkscrew and depict the flaws and would sketch out her own idea for one. She had many ideas, some not even inspired by existing concepts. She had the idea for a beeper that would attach to a book or tool when borrowed and would sound after 10 days. Only the owner would have the ability to turn it off. She called this invention the "Lendalarm". Dillard's mother was very intelligent and had many ideas for new inventions. She was unfortunately unable to take action with any of these ideas. It was more than likely because of the lack of women's rights at the time. Women were known for staying at home to take care of children, cook, and clean. They were not known to invent and flourish in big industries back then.