{"id":52593,"date":"2017-09-27T11:57:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T18:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=52593"},"modified":"2017-09-27T11:57:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T18:57:02","slug":"john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/","title":{"rendered":"John Aussenhofer, familiar face at Post Office, retires"},"content":{"rendered":"

When not dressed as part of Doug Austin\u2019s Olde English players, John Aussenhofer can be found at the Idyllwild Post Office in a costume prescribed by the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"
John Aussenhofer, in a relaxed moment, retires from the Idyllwild Post Office effective Friday, Sept. 29. His sense of humor will be missed by his many front-counter customer fans. Photo by Marshall Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

government, rather than in a nightshirt.<\/p>\n

No matter the costume, Aussenhofer has a ready smile, quick wit and mischievous twinkle in his eye, especially for his regular customers.<\/p>\n

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Jersey City, Bergen County, New Jersey, John later moved to California with his parents and attended Pasadena High School. After high school, John, in his own words, \u201cknocked around\u201d in Southern California working in bookkeeping and small-business consulting, sometimes with his father\u2019s company handling short-line distribution of agricultural products. \u201cHere I was, this city boy, handling an agricultural line,\u201d laughed John.<\/p>\n

After 20 years in Pasadena, John relocated to the Ontario area as a medical processor and counselor for San Bernardino County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came late to the post office,\u201d said John. He started working for the department in 1996 in San Bernardino for the remote coding section. As equipment became less human-dependent, that office closed. Since John was under contract, the post office was obligated to offer alternative jobs and locations. Idyllwild was on the list. His wife\u2019s parents lived in Banning so the couple decided to drive up the Hill to check out Idyllwild. \u201cIt was 2005, just before Halloween,\u201d John remembered. \u201cI talked with Christina [Reitz], Sherry [Kaufman] and Dawn [Miller, then postmaster]. Tuesday morning it was a done deal. Dawn told me I had to be here every day, and no excuse for bad weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved up in June of 2006. The crew I work with is incredible. We work through all the rough spots as a group. As for Idyllwild, the sense of community is very strong, especially how people look out for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

John said he worked the back office when he first came, then was moved up to the front counter and eventually to first clerk. \u201cWith time, I was able to let myself be myself,\u201d he said. \u201cDon Rickles was my model. I loved the interaction with the people, how I could dish it out and they could give it back. It was fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard from so many that coming in to the post office won\u2019t be the same with me not being there. I really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aussenhofer\u2019s retirement is official on Friday, Sept. 29. He plans to move to the Puget Sound area in Washington where he will garden and get involved in community service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When not dressed as part of Doug Austin\u2019s Olde English players, John Aussenhofer can be found at the Idyllwild Post Office in a costume prescribed by the U.S. government, rather than in a nightshirt. No matter the costume, Aussenhofer has a ready smile, quick wit and mischievous twinkle in his eye, especially for his regular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Aussenhofer, familiar face at Post Office, retires • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/john-520x593.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/\",\"name\":\"John Aussenhofer, familiar face at Post Office, retires • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-27T18:57:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-27T18:57:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2017\/09\/27\/john-aussenhofer-familiar-face-post-office-retires\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\",\"name\":\"Marshall Smith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f832ebbb90c77ae40e932b1b868a8db?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marshall Smith\"},\"description\":\"Marshall Smith has been writing for the Town Crier since 2005. His favorite quote is: '\\\"Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.\\\" Robert Kennedy quoting George Bernard Shaw\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52595,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52593\/revisions\/52595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}