Photos John McCorvey and Frank Weir
Putt-Nik Go Carts, Carts with a ‘C’, were built in Washington, Georgia, by Cummings Enterprises from 1958 to mid-year 1961. The karts were the brainchild of Chester Cummings and Holice McAvoy both of whom resided in the Washington area. Cummings and McAvoy were both talented artists who attended The Atlanta College of Art in the mid 1950’s. Prior to founding Putt-Nik Carts Cummings worked at Almar Manufacturing, the company that made the first plastic raincoats. McAvoy was a gifted sculptor and produced many detailed wood carvings many of which were accurate scale models of World War II aircraft.
The styling of the various Putt-Nik models would indicate that artists with design talent were involved in their creation. The first prototypes were built by Chester and Holice in Chester’s basement workshop under Krumbian’s general store located on the Square in downtown Washington. Demand for the first karts soon outpaced production and the procurement of a real factory became a high priority.