What was going on when I was born?

''This is wonderful,'' said Charles Alekel as he stood in the bright spring sunshine yesterday, surrounded by friends and protected by the police. Mr. Alekel, a retired locksmith who lives in Coney Island, had just been given a police escort - in a police van - to his neighborhood shopping center. The escort service, which began yesterday, is available to every elderly resident of Coney Island on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M., under a pilot project of the city's Police Department. The elderly using the project gather at two points along Surf Avenue, and two police vans - normally used to transport officers to special assignments and trouble spots -shuttle them to and from two neighborhood shopping centers.

''RISOTTO alla Milanese is a forgotten treasure,'' says Gianni Minale of the Alfredo restaurant, 240 Central Park South. Italy's most famous rice dish has been displaced by the current craze for pasta. But people are beginning to discover it again. The classic risotto is made with rice cooked in white wine and chicken broth flavored with saffron; butter and grated Parmesan cheese are stirred in at the end of cooking. A rich and filling dish, it is served either on its own or invariably as an accompaniment to osso bucco (braised veal shank).

''We did not gain anything. Walesa has made bungled decisions. We can compromise on the supply of onions, but not when blood has been spilled.''

WHEN Helene Gurfein was growing up in Brooklyn, she dreamed about becoming a musical comedy star a la Jane Powell or Kathryn Grayson. ''My main claim to fame,'' she said, ''was that when I was 7 or 8, I could hit the same high note that Kate Smith hit when she sang 'God Bless America.' '' Today Miss Gurfein is the manager of a Manhattan personnel agency, Broadmore Associates. But she hasn't completely abandoned her childhood dream. She is among the 200 members of the New York Choral Society, an amateur group that meets every Tuesday night and gives three concerts a year at Carnegie Hall. Miss Gurfein, who is in her 40's, is among the many adults who, when they were children, dreamed of growing up and having a glamorous career, such as singer, dancer, actor, fireman, astronaut, professional athlete, artist or brain surgeon.

The Fluor Corporation, one of the world's biggest engineering and construction companies, has agreed to buy the St. Joe Minerals Corporation for $60 a share, totaling nearly $2.9 billion, the two companies announced yesterday. The terms call for payment in cash and stock. This is sharply higher than the offer of $45 a share made March 11 by Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. St. Joe has been fighting the Seagram offer, valued at more than $2 billion in cash, as ''grossly inadequate.'' St. Joe is the nation's biggest lead producer, and it has major interests in coal, petroleum and gold. It is one of several giant mining companies being eagerly sought by oil companies and other major corporations seeking resources for the future.

Business and corporate leaders expressed relief yesterday that President Reagan had survived the assassination attempt in such remarkably good shape, and some said the episode - in particular the President's manifest calmness under stress -may even heighten chances of Congressional enactment of his economic program. ''It can't help but help,'' Joseph B. Flavin, chairman and chief executive officer of the Singer Company, said in an interview. ''It's clear that when there's a crisis, people get behind the President. I don't think there's any question that there will be a groundswell of support.''

WHEN the buds of spring first appear on trees and shrubs, the thoughts of many a summertime wheezer and sneezer turn to allergy shots. Recalling how they suffered in previous years, many visit an allergist asking for injections to desensitize them to the causes of their recurrent misery. Some six million Americans choose shots as the solution to their allergies. Some allergists are quick to oblige, perhaps basing their desensitization treatment on an inadequate diagnosis from one or two positive skin tests and supposed allergic symptoms as diffuse as fatigue and migraine as well as the more classic runny nose, itchy eyes and scratchy throat. But shots are not the simple, preferred solution that many people think they are. Although for many they can be highly effective in relieving the symptoms of a well-defined allergy, they rarely cure the allergy or suppress all its symptoms. In a significant number of people, they don't work at all. For many kinds of allergies, they are wholly inappropriate.

Buoyed by news that President Reagan was making an exceptionally strong recovery from the bullet wound he suffered Monday afternoon, the stock market rallied sharply yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 11.71 points, to close at 1,003.87, slightly below its best level for the year. It was the sixth time this year that the Dow had finished above the 1,000 level. The foreign exchange and bullion markets resumed normal business. The dollar rose and gold prices turned sharply lower. (Page D12.)

In a case that could have wide international repercussions, the Unification Church of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon lost a major libel suit today against a London newspaper. The Daily Mail, which won the case, had made the five-month trial into a far-ranging review of what it called brainwashing and kidnapping techniques practiced by the church. Accepting the newspaper's view, the jury today not only ordered the group to pay court costs estimated at nearly $2 million but also unanimously recommended that the church's tax-free status ''be investigated by the Inland Revenue Department on the grounds that it is a political organization.'' Michael Marshall, an official of the church, which also has a wide following and extensive holdings in the United States, said of the verdict: ''This has put us back to the start of the road again. But we shall continue to fight for recognition and to show we are a genuine religious movement.''

Behind the Reagan Administration's approach to affairs of state today was a calculated strategy not only to reassure the outside world of its stability but also to protect the diplomatic effectiveness of Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. Like a practiced understudy, Vice President Bush stepped into the President's normal daily routine, conferring with the Dutch Prime Minister and conducting a Cabinet meeting. But the White House underscored the point that Mr. Reagan was still President by having him sign a bill on dairy price supports. White House officials also went to extraordinary lengths today to praise Mr. Haig for acting as the coordination point immediately after yesterday's shooting. They were concerned that at the moment the Reagan Administration should show a united front and that, as one official put it, Mr. Haig be presented to the world as ''a vital player'' enjoying White House confidence rather than an over-eager Cabinet member sometimes at odds with the White House and Pentagon.

The parent-teacher conference, a 10-minute session that has brought generations of parents face to face with the other adults in their children's lives, can be an uneasy encounter. It is often laden with expectation and disappointment, in which even trivial comments are given great meaning. Impressions are measured against months of hearsay in this tenuous joint-custody arrangement, and any criticism is leveled gingerly. New York City schoolchildren are given half a day off from school twice a year for the sessions, which are scheduled during evenings as well. Among thousands of teachers who met with their pupils' parents at this year's second round of conferences, which ended yesterday, was James Tobin, a fourth-grade teacher at Public School 41, at 116 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.

Federal investigators have found evidence that they believe suggests that John W. Hinckley Jr., accused of the attack on President Reagan yesterday, was seeking to impress Jodie Foster, a teen-age actress whom he had apparently never met. ''I have killed the President,'' Mr. Hinckley wrote to Miss Foster in an unmailed letter investigators found in his Washington hotel room yesterday, according to sources familiar with the investigation. According to another account, Mr. Hinckley wrote, ''If you don't love me, I'm going to kill the President.'' Imagined Insult Cited Mr. Hinckley apparently imagined that Mr. Reagan had somehow insulted Miss Foster, officials said. This suggestion was contained in another letter to the actress that Mr. Hinckley sent in recent weeks, they said. The nature of the imagined insult was not disclosed.