Parietals

PARIETALS

These were college rules about visitation with the opposite sex. Mostly it was about locking up the girls. Abolished in the late 1960s.

From the online dictionary Info Please:

pa•ri•e•tal

Pronunciation: (pu-rI'i-tl)
—adj.
1. Anat.of, pertaining to, or situated near the side and top of the skull or the parietal bone.
2. Biol.of or pertaining to parietes or structural walls.
3. Bot.pertaining to or arising from a wall: usually applied to ovules when they proceed from or are borne on the walls or sides of the ovary.
4. pertaining to or having authority over residence, and esp. visitation regulations between the sexes, within the walls or buildings of a college or university: a listing of the parietal regulations for the law students' dormitory.

—n.
1. Anat.any of several parts in the parietal region of the skull, esp. the parietal bone.
2. parietals.Also called pari'etal rules'. campus regulations governing visits between members of opposite sexes to each other's dormitories or rooms.

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            I was driving my 16-year-old daughter somewhere the other day when the Classic radio station played that song “Dirty Water”--- you know, “Well I love that dirty water…Boston you’re my home.”

            There’s a stanza that goes: “Frustrated women, have to be in by 12 o’clock. But I’m wishin’ and a-hopin’ that for once those doors weren’t locked.”

            I cast a sideways glance at my daughter; she wore a puzzled expression. I asked if she knew what the song was referring to. “I don’t know,” she said. “Jail??”

I laughed and explained about parietals. She was incredulous.

-RH