What was going on when I was born?

Six weeks after President Reagan's inauguration, a variety of strikingly different and strongly held views continue to mark an economic team in which, by all accounts, David A. Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, remains the central figure. By contrast, in a departure from past practice and from expectations, the Treasury Secretary, Donald T. Regan, has played only a modest role in shaping policy, and he has disappointed even his supporters in his performance as economic spokesman. That reading is shared by Reagan Administration officials and other Washington figures of various economic persuasions - though few, if any, are yet willing to criticize the Treasury Secretary publicly. In a series of interviews, officials credited Mr. Stockman and Murray L. Weidenbaum, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, with enforcing restraint by insisting on a credible economic plan and resisting more radical proposals sought by sub-Cabinet groups of ''supply-siders,'' who stress tax reduction and expectations, or of ''monetarists,'' who want slower money growth.

The Democratic chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Representative Dan Rostenkowski, threw his support today behind a Republican move to commit the committee and Congress to an early effective date for tax relief for business. Representative Barber B. Conable Jr., the ranking Republican on Ways and Means, had proposed as an effective date Jan. 1, 1981 or possibly Feb. 18, the day on which President Reagan outlined his tax and budget proposals in a speech to Congress. Mr. Rostenkowski's willingness to cooperate with Mr. Conable was seen as politically significant because the Ways and Means chairman is understood to be interested in forging a consensus with the Republicans on a bipartisan bill. The chairman's assent seemed to make it certain that the depreciation provision would be retroactive, probably to Jan. 1.

NEW YORKERS buy an average of 6.5 million chickens a week, so it's no wonder that chicken companies compete for customers here with the intensity of promoters of designer jeans. Forty-five percent of the New York market is estimated to prefer brand-name chickens: Competition among Perdue, Cookin' Good and Paramount involves millions of dollars, and New Yorkers have been subjected to a barrage of advertisements in subways, on radio and television and in newspapers. So intense are the ''chicken wars'' that Frank Perdue, the largest seller of premium-priced poultry in the New York area, was charged recently in a Justice Department civil suit with threatening to deny distributors his product if they continued to handle poultry produced by his competitors.

''President Reagan says the one thing we're not talking about is going back to discrimination.

The Reagan Administration plans to ask Congress tomorrow for increases of $33.8 billion in military spending, including nearly $1 billion more for the Rapid Deployment Force and operations in the Indian Ocean, military officials said today. Among the requests are proposals to extend the airfield runways at a United States base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to accommodate B-52 bombers, to dredge the commercial port of Mombasa in Kenya and to improve the military port at Berbera in Somalia. The Administration's requests will include $7.4 billion more than what was included in the Carter Administration's budget for the current fiscal year, raising spending to more than $178 billion. If approved by Congress, the new proposal would also provide an increase of $26.4 billion for the fiscal year 1982, which begins in October.

On a cold day, Hartford Hospital burns as much oil as 15 average residential houses use in a year. Twenty years ago, $100,000 was the annual heating bill for the facility. Last year, its oil and gas costs totaled $1.7 million, and this year they will be even higher. Administrators estimate that on the coldest winter days, they are spending $10 a minute to keep the hospital complex warm. As homeowners turn down thermostats and pile on sweaters, hundreds of hospitals like Hartford find themselves with unusual energy problems and few solutions.

President Reagan said today that he saw no likelihood that the United States would send fighting forces to El Salvador in an effort to help the Government there defeat leftist insurgents. Mr. Reagan denied that there was any parallel between the increase in American military advisory aid and the beginnings of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. ''I certainly don't see any likelihood of us going in with fighting forces,'' the President declared in an interview at the Excerpts from interview, page A18. White House with Walter Cronkite, the veteran correspondent who is retiring as the CBS Evening News anchorman this Friday. ''I do see our continued work in the field of diplomacy with neighboring countries that are interested in Central America, South America to bring this violence to a halt and to make sure that we do not just sit passively by and and let this hemisphere be invaded by outside forces.'' Commenting on the Government's decision to send 20 additional military advisers and $25 million in additional military equipment to El Salvador, the President said the difference between the historical lesson of Vietnam and the incremental involvement in El Salvador was ''profound.''

Allen implements scaled-down version of adviser's role A2 On Chad's uneasy frontier, foreign agents languish A3 Loyalty oath ordered for recruits to China's army A3 Around the World A5 People of Nice now export their winter carnival A7 Reporter's Notebook: At Soviet congress, praise for Brezhnev A8 Soviet party congress affirms leadership A9 Moslem flees her family to rejoin Catholic husband in Canada A10 Government/Politics Reagan nominates 17 for key Ad- ministration posts A18 Delay on pollution curbs urged for steel industry A22 House panel hears report on cuts in Veterans Administration A24 Mayor Koch names a new panel to look at the taxi industry B3 Anderson blocks Carey plan for Medicaid cost takeover B6 Koch's aide defends tax incentive programs for landlords B8 General Around the Nation A12 Rubin Carter wins new hearing on 1966 murder charge B2 Long Island's North Fork be- comes a wine-producing area B2 Health/Science Tests of synthetic growth hor- mone delayed for children A22 The Reagan Administration re- jects water aid for New Jersey B5 Baptist Medical Center files bank- ruptcy petition B5 News Analysis Howell Raines on Reagan's drive for states' rights A1 Steven Rattner discusses the Rea- gan economic team D1 The Living Section Food Rating roasting chickens: a guide for buyers C1 Michelin Guide adds a new three-star restaurant C1 Where the maitre d'hotel is dip- lomatic C1 Kitchen Equipment C2 60-Minute Gourmet C3 A culinary 'Little India' on East Sixth Street C3 At town meeting, dinner is high- light C6 Best Buys C10 In Peking, bagels with a Flat- bush flavor C12 Wine Talk: The charms of Port C16 New York City water selling in Hollywood restaurants C17 Living Metropolitan Diary C2 Personal Health: The Pritikin diet C14 The low cost of feeling extrava- gant C18 Arts/Entertainment Paul Burlison rediscovers the old rock-and-roll magic C19 Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford in Y's "Lyricists" show C19 "The Survivor," drama about the Holocaust, opens C20 "Goya" is staged by the Bread and Puppet Theater C21 Mike Nichols now directs Simon's "Curse of Kulyenchikov" C23 Laurie Colwin's book of short sto- ries is reviewed C25 Obituaries Edna Rudolph Beilenson, owner of Peter Pauper Press D23 Dr. Rebecca C. Lancefield, bac- teriologist D23 Sports Jackson joins Yanks; tries to make peace with Steinbrenner B9 Phillies still a divided team, but unite on goals for 1981 B9 Compulsory routines mean slow day in figure skating B9 Red Smith on the fight matching Mister and Jimbo B11 Leonard title bout has $60 ringside price B11 Features/Notes About New York B6 Going Out Guide C21 Notes on People C26 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A26 To put transit together again Clearing the air for clean air Topics: backward and forward Letters A26 James Reston: Alexander Haig's Senate 'partners' A27 Russell Baker: Indians did it with smoke A27 John Curtis Perry: a plea to Japan to occupy the U.S. A27 Ruth Karen: American business shouldn't emulate Japan A27

One cherished tradition of the domestic automobile industry that has crumbled before the onrush of imports is the annual fall new-model introduction, with its elaborate prerelease secrecy followed by hard-sell hoopla. Some of the hoopla remains, but the secrecy is largely a thing of the past. And the spring new-model introduction is beginning to rival the fall release as domestic and foreign manufacturers rush new products to market. This spring will see an entirely new line of cars from the General Motors Corporation that will compete directly with the subcompact sedans that have made the Japanese the second most powerful force in the American automobile market. The Ford Motor Company will introduce sporty derivatives of its successful Ford Escort/Mercury Lynx subcompacts designed to appeal to younger drivers. And the Chrysler Corporation will offer low-price, high-mileage versions of its sporty Dodge and Plymouth subcompacts.

The United States Army tries many ways to persuade young men and women to sign up and serve their country. It advertises on television. It sends out direct mail. It runs magazine and newspaper ads. It hands out booklets at recruiting stations. But one of the most effective ways, it readily concedes, is through its sponsorship of Sourcebook and On Your Own, magazines that focus on aspects of high school life. They are produced by the 13-30 Corporation, a publishing company in Knoxville, Tenn.

Major banks across the country, in a reaction to competition from cheaper sources of credit and sharp declines in demand for business loans, lowered their prime rates yesterday by half a percentage point, to 18 1/2 percent. ''We've seen a fairly sharp decline in business loan activity in January, and it looks as though it was a larger than seasonal drop,'' said David M. Jones, a vice president of Aubrey G. Lanston & Company. A drop in the prime rate from the 19 percent level that had prevailed for more than a week was anticipated, analysts and bank officials said. They cautioned, though, that yesterday's decline in the key rate did not necessarily indicate that lending rates would drop significantly below current levels.

Whenever restaurant men gather in France they retell the story of Jacques Maniere and the Michelin inspector. Twenty years ago, before becoming famous in St.-Germain-des-Pres here with Le Pactole and later Dodin-Bouffant, Mr. Maniere had a place at Pantin, a tough industrial area just over the Paris city line. A man came in, had a steak and retired to the restroom after paying the bill. Reappearing, he identified himself as a Michelin inspector and began upbraiding le patron for the condition of the toilets. Mr. Maniere, proud of his maintenance, became irate. ''Had he come to eat or to use the bathroom?'' he inquired, recalling the episode. For many years Mr. Maniere and his subsequent restaurants were missing from the famous red guide. Andre Trichot shifted in his chair and pulled a face. ''Yes,'' he conceded, ''there was an incident like that.'' But, he added, if the restaurateur disappeared from the guide for some years, it was because he had moved, for ''it takes time to evaluate a new place.''