What was going on when I was born?

French election choices produce ennui among the young A2 Gap is wide at Thatcher-Gandhi talks in New Delhi A3 Coca-Cola brings ''tasty happiness'' to Peking A3 Suzuki says he will ask Reagan about sinking of Japanese ship A4 Around the World A5 Afghans and Russians said to seize man near U.S. Embassy A6 Bani-Sadr, in budget battle, regains office funds A8 Weinberger tells Ottawa Reagan plans to go ahead with the F-18 A14 Government/Politics Kean draws opponents' fire in Jersey primary race B2 Ex-Casino Commission official denies Williams pressured him B6 Coalition seeking opponent to Koch is disbanding B12 Postal Service seeks single labor bargaining unit B14 General Around the Nation A18 F.B.I. agent's remarks on murders stir anger in Atlanta A24 Parley on elderly voices fear of Reagan budget cuts A26 Thefts from hand trucks on the rise in garment district B3 Gallup poll finds more favorable attitudes toward Jews B14 Features/Notes Man in the News: Thomas Bradley, a winner in Los Angeles A28 Notes on People C13 PARKING REGULATIONS Because of Good Friday and Passover, alternate-side parking will be suspended in New York City tomorrow and Saturday. All other parking rules remain in effect. The Home Section Home In Harlem's elegant Strivers' Row C1 At furniture market, a few new ideas enliven quiet show C1 The risks in using paints and strippers C3 For upholstery, a comeback of jacquards C8 Architect is catalyst in mar- riage of styles C10 Choosing scissors right for the task C11 So many keys, so few pockets, such ire C1 Hers C2 Helpful Hardware C2 Home Beat C3 Home Improvement C4 Gardening C12 Health/Science Eight U.S. senators urge home- care aid for elderly A20 France postpones broadcasts to televise shuttle landing B8 Arts/Entertainment Orchestre Toulouse plays Faure Monologues pinpoint flaws in recent Broadway plays C17 Acting Company performs Goldoni's ''Il Campiello'' C20 David Irving's ''War Between the Generals'' is reviewed C21 Mannes music school rebounds from recent troubles C21 Jackie Cooper, at 58, looks back on unhappy childhood C22 Public Radio plans Jonestown broadcast for 10th anniversary C31 Sports Mets turn back Cards in home opener, 5-3 B15 Yankees beat Blue Jays, 6-3 B15 Villanova drops football program B15 Soviet rout Canada in world hockey tourney B16 Dave Anderson on Hubie Brooks, the Mets' 68th third baseman B15 76ers defeat Bucks, 116-99, and lead playoff series by 3-2 B17 Ryan moves into third place on ca reer strikeout list B18 Trainer of Proud Appeal finally gains New York recognition B19 Obituaries William H. Vanderbilt, ex-Governor of Rhode Island B12 Lillie Shultz, journalist and official of Jewish Congress B12 Frank W. Packard, wine merchant and retailer in Jersey B12 News Analysis Bernard Gwertzman examines Awacs sale to Saudis A11 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 Deadlocks in Albany Pardoning the F.B.I.'s past Dear Abby China is not a card Letters A30 William Safire: 'naked to mine enemies' A31 Anthony Lewis: conserving the society A31 Ed Clark: Reagan? Free enterprise? A31 Lawrence J. O'Brien Jr.: sharing the port barrel A31

Vice President Bush said today that President Reagan ''would give the veto very, very serious consideration'' if Congress passed a one-year tax cut instead of the three-year plan recommended by the President. The Vice President's remark was part of a chorus of hard-line statements from Mr. Reagan's surrogates as the White House began a political counteroffensive to offset reports that the President was willing to compromise on his tax plan. In words so similar that at times they might have been speaking from a common script, Mr. Bush, Donald T. Regan, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Larry Speakes, the deputy White House press secretary, asserted that public pressure would force Congress to support Mr. Reagan's plan to cut income taxes by 10 percent a year for three successive years. President 'Feels Great' The threat of a veto and the idea that Congress must submit to the President were put forward as Mr. Reagan remained in the White House living quarters. Dr. Daniel Ruge, Mr. Reagan's personal physician, said the 70-year-old President ''feels great'' 16 days after he was shot in the left lung by an assassin outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Firefighters in Yonkers walked off their jobs in a labor dispute late this afternoon, leaving the state's fourth largest city without fire protection. A state of emergency was declared by City Manager Eugene J. Fox, who put into effect ''our contingency strike plan to insure that the welfare and safety of the public is protected.'' Yonkers police officers began a 24-hour watch on all fire stations and public buildings, Mr. Fox said. Picket lines were set up at some of the city's 13 firehouses after bargaining talks collapsed after 5 P.M. at City Hall. About 10:50 P.M., a fire was reported in a stairwell of an abandoned four-story apartment building at the corner of Riverdale Avenue and Knowles Street. It was brought under control within an hour by the Fire Commissioner, Richard S. Smith, and a deputy chief, who arrived in two cars and used fire extinguishers to fight the blaze.

Several counties around New York City took steps this week that increased support for a controversial statewide antilitter bill that would require a nickel deposit on every soft-drink and beer container sold at retail. A divided Koch adminstration is expected to decide by next week whether the city will support the bill, which has sparked a debate primarily over its economic effects on the state. City economists estimate that 2.2 billion such bottles and cans are sold in New York City alone in a year. On Monday a Suffolk County law, similar to the proposed state bill, was signed by County Executive Peter F. Cohalan. It is the first county law of its kind in New York. Mr. Cohalan urged Mayor Koch and others in the region to follow suit.

''Four years ago thousands of draft evaders and others who violated the Selective Service laws were unconditionally pardoned by my predecessor.

In normal times, yesterday would have been a day when New York City could have gone to the bank with $280 million in state aid for education. But these are not normal times, and with the state showing no hurry to produce a new budget, the city did not get the money that was its due yesterday. At City Hall, the bad news produced a collective shrugging of shoulders. ''Our own cash-flow projections show that we can make it well into May before we have troubles of our own,'' said James R. Brigham Jr., Mayor Koch's Budget Director.

The stock market, buoyed by lower inflationary expectations and announcements of improved corporate earnings, advanced strongly yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising 12.61 points, to 1,001.71. The average, which was up throughout the session, made its largest single-day gain in three weeks. On March 25, it climbed 19.09 points, to 1,015.22, its highest close so far this year. Interest rates rose sharply in the credit markets, partly, analysts said, because of nervousness stemming from forecasts of another increase in the weekly money supply figures scheduled for release tomorrow. (Page D8.) The rise in interest rates also helped send the dollar up sharply in foreign exchange trading. (Page D16.)

THE key question is: How do you cope with all the keys? A recent, and thoroughly unscientific, sampling of typical New Yorkers revealed that they were carrying some part of the following assortment of keys about their persons: 1. The front-door key to their homes or apartment buildings. 2. An apartment-door master-lock key, and the key to one or two other door locks, such as a Segal lock or police lock. 3. A mailbox key and a safe-deposit-box key. 4. A key to house alarms, or a window-gate key. 5. Car keys (ignition and trunk), a gas-cap key and perhaps the key to a car alarm. 6. Keys to a vacation house, or to parents' or relatives' homes. 7. Keys to locks at work - for desk, locker or telephone. 8. Keys to locks for 10-speed bicycles and motorcycles. ''It's a striking form of behavior,'' said Alistair Cooke, who lives among us and has long observed our obsession with keys. ''I deny that it's an exclusively New York fetish, though.'' ''I believe it's a universal irritant,'' said Ann Miller, who, while renowned for her role in ''Sugar Babies,'' is rather less well known as one who is a lugger-about of keys - more than 30 of them, in fact.

U.S. industrial production rose four-tenths of 1 percent in March, reflecting improvement in auto assemblies and offsetting a similar decline the previous month, the Federal Reserve Board said. The February drop followed six straight monthly gains, but economists said the return to the plus column did not signal a strengthening rebound. The Commerce Department reported that the business inventory-to-sales ratio rose slightly in February, to 1.36 months, an apparent indication of a slowing in commercial activity. (D1.) Savers withdrew $1.7 billion more than they deposited at savings and loan associations in March, the United States League of Savings Associations said, citing ''unfair competition'' from money market funds as a prime reason. It was the largest monthly outflow ever. A record outflow is also expected to be reported for March by mutual savings banks. (D1.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Paula Deitz is co-editor of The Hudson Review. IN 1891, David H. King Jr., a New York builder, acquired a tract of land in Harlem on West 138th and West 139th Streets between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and commissioned three leading New York architectural concerns to design separate rows of houses for it. The three - McKim, Mead & White; Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce, and James Brown Lord - each proposed a different design. These small elegant houses, ranging in width from 17 to 22 feet, were the epitome of New York graciousness. They were also suited for life in a growing metropolis, as their survival has proved. The elegant unified facades give the impression of small mansions because the units blend one with the other. The speculative housing was underwritten by an insurance company, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, at a cost of $1,535,000, but the financial panic of 1893 doomed the development's immediate success, and by 1895 Equitable Life took title to the houses. It remained a white enclave for many years, but by 1920 black professionals began purchasing the elegant houses and so it is as a black community that the area resonates with the stylish urban life that Mr. King had intended.

Two right-wing Salvadoran civilians have been arrested as suspects in the killing of the head of El Salvador's Agrarian Reform Institute and two American rural labor advisers, United States officials said today. Hans Christ, a 30-year-old Salvadoran, was arrested early today in Miami and held without bail pending a hearing Friday on a Salvadoran Government request that he be extradited to be tried for the Jan. 3 killings of Jose Rodolfo Viera, head of the land redistribution program, and two American labor advisers, Michael P. Hammer and Mark D. Pearlman. Official sources said that another Salvadoran civilian, who was not identified, was arrested more than a week ago in San Salvador as a result of an investigation into the killings that was conducted by the Salvadoran police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Witness in Protective Custody According to these sources, a witness, who is in protective custody, has identified the two suspects as having taken part in the shooting of the three men as they drank coffee in the cafeteria of the San Salvador Sheraton Hotel.

International Polish Communist radicals met and issued demands for democratic changes. The meeting of about 750 delegates from local party units said it was founding a movement for reform outside the control of the party's leadership. The delegates assailed the party leaders and called for freedom of the press and a new openness in Polish society. (Page A1, Columns 3-4.) Soviet concern about Poland, expressed in the press, made clear that Moscow's assessement of the Polish situation was unchanged. The newspapers asserted that Poland was being subverted by ''creeping counterrevolution'' from within and ''radio aggression'' from the West while the Communist workers yearned for the party to reassert its authority. (A12:3-4.)