What was going on when I was born?

''There are certain kinds of controversy we create by being unlike anything else on the air. The danger is, you start to think you're everything the reviews say you are.'' -Lorne Michaels, creator and producer of NBC's original ''Saturday Night Live,'' in 1977. ''We can risk, be honest and either win or fail honorably. Or we can play safe and be a plastic, cloned 'Saturday Night Live 2.''' -Peter Tauber, a former writer on the new ''Saturday Night Live,'' in a memo last September to producer Jean Doumanian.

The citizens' tax revolt of the late 1970's is now, for the first time, causing substantial reductions in state and local services around the nation. For several years treasury surpluses in a number of states cushioned the impact of the tax cuts, spending limits and rebates to citizens demanded by the electorate. But a check of representative state capitals found that most legislatures meeting this month are facing a shortage of revenues that has brought, or is expected to bring, layoffs and reductions in many areas of government. ''The moment of truth is upon us,'' Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. told the California Legislature in his budget message yesterday. When the current fiscal year ends June 30, he said, the state will have nothing left of a surplus that once approached $4 billion. The Governor's spending proposal represented a rise of only $300 million from the current $24.2 billion budget, which he said was not enough to keep pace with inflation.

In a compromise that all but assured the prompt confirmation of Alexander M. Haig Jr. as Secretary of State, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed today to subpoena logs summarizing 100 hours of tapes of 1973 conversations between Mr. Haig and President Nixon. The logs were sought so they could be checked to see if the tapes themselves were needed to judge Mr. Haig's qualifications. Committee Democrats agreed Main points of testimony, page 26. that a Senate vote on Mr. Haig's nomination should not be put off if there was a delay in obtaining logs or tapes. Republicans hope to push the vote through on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

THE chill wind that greets commuters stepping off the 5:07 when the train arrives in Huntington is colder than the one they left behind in Manhattan, a fact that has dismayed many, especially as the temperatures in the metropolitan area have grown consistently cooler since mid-December. Generally, say meteorologists on the Island, the temperatures in Nassau and Suffolk Counties are approximately 10 degrees colder than in the city, with the North Shore slightly colder than the South Shore and the East End cooler than the west. ''There are slight temperature discrepancies from shore to shore,'' said Hal Pillinger, a meteorologist with the Metro Weather Service in Queens, ''but the Island suffers more in the extreme cold than the city.''

Andrea Jaeger, 15 years old, stunned Martina Navratilova in three sets tonight and joined Tracy Austin in the final of the $250,000 Colgate Series championship. Miss Jaeger, who was only one point from elimination in a match earlier in the week against Virginia Ruzici, scored her most significant victory on the women's tour tonight, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Miss Navratilova was the defender and had lost only one match in six years in the Washington area. Miss Jaeger's triumph - her second in two meetings with Miss Navratilova - followed Miss Austin's 6-2, 6-1 rout of a tired Wendy Turnbull in the opening semifinal before a crowd of 11,800 at the Capital Centre.

Never in the 14-month hostage crisis did the end seem so near. But, even as the pace quickened, success remained out of reach. Officials carrying last-minute offers shuttled last week between Washington and Algiers and Teheran, racing the Carter Administration's deadline this Friday for arranging the release of the 52 Americans.

Anders Hedberg swept across the blue line, swung wide around the simulated defenseman, Phil Esposito, and scored an easy practice goal against Wayne Thomas. Seconds later, Ulf Nilsson did virtually the same thing. Finally, Esposito, wearing his new coach's black windbreaker, and no protective padding, managed to poke check the puck away from one of the Rangers' smoothest stick handlers, Ron Greschner. ''Hah,'' shouted Esposito with a grin not quite as curved as the blade of his stick. Before some 1,000 cheering teen-agers in the ice rink at Playland Rye, Phil Esposito the assistant coach had made his first impression on the public, just 14 hours after he had played his last National Hockey League game against the Buffalo Sabres.

In the past, my wife, Carole Anne, and I had come to St. Augustine, Fla., for little more than the beach, an art festival, fishing or perhaps dinner, with a stroll down one of the city's lanes thrown in for good measure. During one such trip, we attended a ''preconstruction buffet'' given by the developers of one of the many new condominiums that have sprung up from the sand dunes on the southern end of Anastasia Island, which lies just east of St. Augustine. Whether the affair was successful from the standpoint of sales, I do not know, but many in attendance were already condominium owners, concerned that this newcomer might impose the ambiance they already enjoyed. And so, in St. Augustine, at 415 years old, the siege continues. That siege was begun by the claims laid upon it by the Indians, French, Spanish, pirates, British, the South and, finally, the United States. No doubt, a hundred years hence, some entrepreneur will claim that the city possesses ''America's Oldest Condominium.'' But in spite of development nearby, in spite of a sprinkling of tacky tourist distractions, America's oldest city still maintains a Spanish colonial charm that is unmatched in the United States.

THE controversy over the Shoreham nuclear power plant began as a debate over safety, but with electric rates on the Island rising dramatically over the last few years, the economics of the project, and their impact on the Long Island Lighting Company as a whole, are now receiving almost equal emphasis. Tomorrow, the New York State Public Service Commission will begin a series of special hearings on the contention by Shoreham opponents that it would be cheaper to abandon the plant right now, despite all the money already spent on it, and instead begin a massive conservation effort. In testimony it will give, Lilco describes any effort to cancel Shoreham as ''utterly irrational'' and as extremely costly to consumers. While this argument will eventually be decided by the commission, the Island's consumers are left to ponder the future and to wonder whether an endless spiral of rate increases will force them to stop using clothes dryers and dishwashers and otherwise alter their way of life. Following are some questions and answers on the future of electric rates on the Island.

OWNER Billy O'Neill would seem to be taking Gov. William A. O'Neill's economy message to heart. At least that's the way it appeared on a recent visit to O'Neill's Tap Room in East Hampton. It was a sunny but chilling day with the temperature at 10 degrees Fahrenheit. But inside O'Neill's the temperature wasn't so much warmer that you could eat lunch without a coat over your shoulders. And the lighting, except for the natural light afforded the few tables near the window, was dim even at midday, suggesting that energy conservation was very much on the O'Neill/O'Neill mind. With the advent of the O'Neill Administration, we decided to have a look at the culinary roots of Connecticut's new Governor in his barrestaurant in East Hampton, population 8,584, just 15 miles southeast of Hartford.

A FEW days ago, during a picture-taking session in his spacious midManhattan office, Jesse Werner, the 64-year-old chairman of the GAF Corporation, was asked to move to the opposite side of the room so that the lighting behind him might would not produce a halo effect in the picture. Obliging, Mr. Werner, a broad-shouldered man who looks younger than his age, strolled to another position and noted, ''Too bad. It would certainly be the first time I ever had a halo.'' Indeed, the reputation of GAF and Mr. Werner, its long-time chief, has been less than divine. For years, the company limped along well behind the Eastman Kodak Company in the amateur camera and film business, before giving up the chase in 1977. Even after abandoning consumer photography, GAF has proven a lackluster performer. A conglomerate whose products include asphalt roofing materials, View Master viewers, chemicals, paper, millboard and a classical radio station in New York, it is remarkable mainly for its skimpy profits. For example, GAF's profit margin in the latest 12 months was 1.6 percent, compared with 5 percent for all industry, according to a recent survey.

SANDY HOOK ALTHOUGH the Sandy Hook unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area has been reopened since last Memorial Day, when the Army finished searching for buried artillery shells and bombs, controversy surrounding the park and the clearance operation continues. ''Old live munitions lying around are extremely dangerous, much more dangerous than fresh munitions,'' said Col. Vito Longo, who heads the Defense Explosives Safety Board. ''A battery of lawyers are probably sitting around right now with all the historical documents, waiting to try the first injury which will happen as a result of 'The Hook.''' ''The Hook,'' a six-mile peninsula of dunes, virgin holly forest and open beachfront that stretches from Highlands to the southern tip of New York Harbor, was used as a weapons test site in the last century and the early years of this one. For almost two decades, it had been under consideration as a site for a federally protected national seashore to serve the 20 million people of the metropolitan area.