- When I go see my cousin,
and he comes up to me and he says to me,
that he graduated
from General Eisenhower High School,
I no longer have to say that I graduated
from General Equivalency High School.
I can say that I graduated from
Richmond Hill High School,
'cause I have my diploma right here.
Congratulations, everybody.
This is important
and I came back for it.
Thank you.
- MTV.
- [Reporter] What do you make
of Cyndi Lauper being here for this?
Do you feel upstaged at all or are you excited?
- I'm excited.
It makes it a special graduation.
It's going to be great.
- Do you know her at all or
will she be in contact?
- I saw her on television a couple
times but I don't really know her.
- What do you think of it all?
- I think it's great.
It's exciting.
More people want to come.
It's going to make it a lot better.
It's going to be remembered for a long time.
- [Principal] Congratulations
to you, the class of 1988.
In planning our 90th celebration,
we contacted
a Hillite
who has indeed become world famous.
Cynthia Marie Lauper,
has joined the class of 1988.
It is my honor
to present her
with her
diploma
from Richmond Hill High School.
By virtue
of the powers vested in me,
by the state education department
and by the Board of Education
of the City of New York,
I now proclaim you
a Richmond Hill High School graduate.
- A few quick notes.
I want to thank you, all of you,
for letting me be part of your graduating class this year.
I waited a long time
for this piece of paper here.
In the immortal words of my grandfather,
"The more you learn, the more you earn."
- OK. Alright.
What are you doing to celebrate tonight?
Are you getting a six pack and going out with the girls?
- No, I think I'm going to go out and get a little dinner
with my family and friends,
you know,
do a little celebration dinner
seeing that I'm an intelligent intellectual now.
- The graduate.
- I am.
- Is this something you thought
about, like, over the years of -
before now and you wished you had actually finished school?
- I never could -
I really tried,
you know, doing the formal education.
And everybody's come up to me and say, "Hey
I went to high school with you."
I'd have to say, "Which one?"
You know,
because I flunked out of four, you know.
It was -
Richmond Hill was the last place I flunked out of.
In every school
they had me, like, on a special program, you know, one was for -
the first one,
which is different school, was fashion industries.
They had me in a -
when I failed,
they put me in a
special class for failing geniuses, you know,
so I figured, hey, it's got an angle,
but I failed that.
So, I figured, I'm a dummy.
OK, I can deal with that.
Then, I went to Richmond Hill,
and, of course, I went to other summer schools, you know,
John Adams, Washington Irving,
you know.
Richmond Hill,
I think I stayed the longest and I -
we kind of did some crazy things.
I teamed up
with a girlfriend and -
that's when I started
singing in a duet, you know.
- We saw this clip in the school paper of you with a guitar.
- I know.
- What kind of material were you doing back then?
- A little folk material.
I was a folk singer.
I played folk songs
and I played guitar, you know,
but I don't have time
and I get impatient because I can't sing.
I mean, I can't play what I can sing.
So, you know, it's a funny thing, like, with
the video, ["Hole In My Heart (All The Way To China)"],
I worked with the guitar player, you know,
we're working
and you kind of, like, sing what you want,
and he played stuff, and you go, "Oh, that's good.
And that's good.
And yeah."
And then we do this, and we'll do that,
you know, and we're all talking.
And then, you know,
comes time for the video
and, you know, it's like, "Hey,
why don't you play guitar, Cyn?" And you're like,
"Oh yeah, right." So then, you know,
the guitar player,
who is a real proficient player
and he was nice, you know,
he made a video, a how-to video.
You know, I'm good at how-to stuff, you know,
a Mel Bay's book.
Mel Baines?
- Mel Bay.
I don't know.
I have the 'Dulcimer' book I'm still working on.
- You are a bookie, geez.
- Yeah, I am.
When I learned that
from watching him,
it was just a real strange thing because all of a sudden,
you know, what you were singing,
it's translated in a completely different medium
and it's kind of wild, you know?
So, I just thought it was a complete circle.
- Mom, you're proud of her? Get over here.
- You're happy?
- She looks happy.
- Yeah she is.
She waited a long time for me to graduate.
- Is this one of the great days in your life?
- Absolutely.
I'm thrilled to death.
- Isn't that sweet?
- It is, see.
And she's in the video, too, along
with Margarete Dominique
over there.
- Margarete, get her in here.
- Come here, Margarete.
She was also a star in "She Bop." Come on.
- This is your aunt?
- That's my sister.
- Catrine Dominique and Margarete Dominique.
And my mother's husband,
Dominic Dominique,
is over there.
- Are you all going into the movies now?
- Absolutely.
(laughing)
We love it.
- You know,
we are family.
We might as well have fun doing it, you know?
- Thanks very much.
- Thank you.
- Have a good night
- Thank you.
- Bye, bye.