Early Sittum History

The deck at Ocean Park, perched high on the dune overlooking the beach and Atlantic Ocean, has been used for decades as a place to sit and enjoy the day.  The locally coined name “sittum” first appeared in the August 1975 issue of The Shoreline, or “Pine Knoll Shore Line” as it was titled then. According to current Pine Knoll Shores resident Bruce Yaeck, his mother, Cres Yaeck, was first to name this deck "the sittum," and it stuck.  The term would come into common usage in Pine Knoll Shores in reference to similar decks along the beach, but the sittum discussed in this post refers to the one in Ocean Park. While speaking of names, Ocean Park was originally called Mimosa Park or Mimosa Beach Park, but for purposes of simplicity, it will in this article always be Ocean Park.