What was going on when I was born?

Given the fact--as pointed out in this section recently--that every first-line American orchestra and many below that level are led by foreign-born conductors, what chance is there for the aspiring young American conductor? Right now, one is forced to conclude, the obstacles seem severe.

THE Power Authority of the State of New York agreed informally last week to notify Westchester County authori ties through a standard warning system of any "seismic event" at the Indian Point nuclear power facility, rather than limit such notification to serious tremors or those having an adverse affect on the plant.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26--The United States expressed concern today that Vietnamese forces may be planning a military operation within a week to disperse the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian refugees in camps just inside the Thailand border.

BRIDGEPORT VALERIE LOMAX, a working mother with six young children, sews most of her own clothing and does without movies and dining out. These and other modest sacrifices that have become a part of her daily routine reflect Mrs. Lomax's determination to educate her oldest daughter at Kolbe-Cathedral, a small and unusual Roman Catholic high school in this industrial city.

When top officers of Santa Fe Industries journeyed from Chicago last week to address financial analysts in New York, same executives who routinely made the trip in years past had to stay home. And the five who did come--including the chairman and president of the $2.6 billion conglomerate--flew economy class.

Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, East Harlem, and even in the South Bronx are becoming sought after as people interested in buying a town house are discovering that every New York neighborhood, no matter how poor its public image, has beautiful blocks and can offer them moderately priced homes.

FARMINGVILLE AS four snow-making machines puffed billows of white crystalline snow into the cool afternoon air, Dom Venezia, manager of Brookhaven Town's ski bowl, surveyed the exposed grass of the Island's longest and steepest ski run. Its name, Bald Hill, seemed almost too apt a description.

WASHINGTON--If the Kremlin needed evidence that it has touched a raw American nerve with its invasion of Afghanistan, it came in the thunderclap of applause in Congress Wednesday night to President Carter's sharp warning that he was ready to use force to protect vital American interests in the Persian Gulf.

DETROIT FEW leaders of the American automobile industry are willing to admit it, but the prolonged sales slump of new domestic cars may mean that the industry will have to write the 1980 model year off as a loss. With only a few exceptions--those being highly fuel-efficient cars and some luxury models at the opposite end of the scale-- new car sales are at their lowest levels since 1975.

CHAPPAQUA UNDER the zoning code of the Town of New Castle, residents may keep "a reasonable number of customary household pets." Beverly Russo, who lives on a third of an acre at 15 Ridge Drive, contends that she is doing just that with ...

OLD BROOKVILLE CEDAR Swamp Road starts off in the 20th century and meanders down through 350 years of Long Island history. Some local people, however, fear that bulldozers now at work on the road may destroy the part that journeys into the past.

The United States Embassy in Teheran fell to Iranian demonstrators quickly and almost without violence 12 weeks ago today because the embassy personnel had not expected anything unusual that morning, certainly not being held hostage, according to the accounts of hostages who have returned to this country and an American who escaped that day.