What was going on when I was born?

In the fast-paced, big-money world of oil company mergers, one name that has been in the news with increased frequency is the Cities Service Company, the Tulsa, Okla., energy conglomerate that is the nation's 20th-largest oil company. In the flurry of activity that preceeded the $6.82 billion purchase earlier this week of Conoco Inc. by the Du Pont Company, Cities Service was in the ring, talking of a possible Conoco merger. That talk, however, was scuttled by a $2.5 billion bid from Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc., the American subisidiary of the Canadian liquor company, which, in turn, was outbid by Du Pont. This week, there was talk on Wall Street of a possible bid by Texaco Inc. for Cities Service, and yesterday this talk prompted Cities Service to issue a terse statement saying it was not dis- Texaco's reported bid for Cities Service could top $3 billion, b anking sources said yesterday. Page D4. cussing a merger with Texaco, or with anyone else for that matter. And it added that it was not interested in starting such talks.

Uganda orders two former Amin aides to stand trial A4 Around the World A5 U.N. panel says Israel could make atomic bombs quickly A6 High U.S. aide sees need to clarify stand on Soviet A7 China keeps up denunciation of United States foreign policy A9 Iran's radio warns that foreign journalists may be spies A10 Greeks fear Albania-Yugoslav rift may imperil Balkan area A12 Government/Politics Reagan decides to transfer Cubans from Fort Chaffee A14 Gov. Brown orders fruit-tree stripping in California A14 Baker moves to end filibuster against anti-busing proposals A18 Lawmakers say constituents op- pose Reagan's programs A20 The man who gives life to Albany Republican views B3 Carey signs bill easing rules on electronic banking B3 Koch plans to shift duties of Ports and Terminals Department B4 Regan audit criticizes racing as- sociation executives B4 General Around the Nation A14 Immigration officials to question Unification Church aide A18 Four are indicted in Manhattan in tax-shelter scheme B3 Funeral for motorman is quiet de- spite calls for protest B3 Health/Science Drug may prevent dangerous herpes infections A14 New opposition arises to rapid- change theory of evolution B11 Obituaries Herman Stark, former owner of Cotton Club B11 Home Section Home Beyond the fringe: A designer's zany world in leather C1 Helpful Hardware C2 Moths not a threat, but other pests are C3 Home Improvement C4 Better to buy or rent? A com- puter tells you C6 Getting new windows on your world C10 Design Notebook: Houses by the sea C12 Gardening C14 Buckminster Fuller celebrates 86th birthday C1 In "wasted" hours, timeless treasures C1 Hers C2 Scenes from city's past on exhibit at gallery C7 A father and son give new look to old hotel C11 Styles for heroines of the execu- tive suite C13 Arts/Entertainment Stanley Turrentine and Carmen McRae sing at Savoy C15 Rallies to support funds for arts planned for July 18 C16 Balanchine lets his dancers let their hair down C17 Robert Preston looks back on Hol- lywood's foibles C17 Sarah Caldwell rehearses a Pe- king opera company C18 Suit on "Ark" film alleges theft from a novel C20 Denis Donoghue's "Ferocious Al- phabets" is reviewed C21 Pierre Boulez's electronic "Repons" is near completion C23 Sports Ellenberger, avoiding a jail term, is put on year's probation B6 Sale of Islander stock is called off B6 Calabria wins New York State golf by 2 shots B6 Lawyer for baseball players ques- tions Grebey's credibility B7 Cosmos beat Blizzard, 2-1 B7 76ers reportedly sold to Harold Katz B7 Giants' keeper of the gear pre- pares for training camp B7 George Vecsey on the Alouettes' disappointing opening loss B8 U.S. takes diplomatic stance on track meet in Leningrad B8 Davis Cup captaincy suits Ashe B9 Reinsdorf predicts owners will back their negotiators B10 Features/Notes Going Out Guide C20 Notes on People C22 News Analysis Hedrick Smith on political praise for Reagan's court choice A17 Adam Clymer on significance of Mississippi election to G.O.P. A21 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A22 Do oil and chemistry mix? The "model" nuclear deal Granma is not dangerous Albany's better way on bail Letters A22 Anthony Lewis: "We are poles apart" A23 David E. Bonior: the U.S.'s south- ern flank A23 Robin Fleisig: when parents leave the nest A23 David Oyama: in 1942, intern- ment - in 1981, an inquiry A23

K.C. Cole is a science writer and the author of a forthcoming book, ''Between the Lines.'' By K.C. COLE A few months ago I was visiting a physicist for whom I work in San Francisco when we decided to take a detour on the way to work and treat his restless black Labrador to a run on the beach. We drove out beyond the Golden Gate to the headlands where the wind blew the foam off the tops of the breaking waves in soft white feathers of spray. We chased the dog down the smooth, pebbled beach and up steep, craggy cliffs, the physicist with his lame leg and cane embarrassingly more agile than I. We talked of the preciousness of life and the danger of nuclear war, of physics and of the science museum where we both work. At about 11 A.M. we climbed into his car to head for the museum, and he said, ''Well, I guess we shot the morning.'' I teased him about it, but it reminded me of the entire day I had spent trying to find my son a pair of shoes in our new town. Even though it turned out to be a shared adventure and an altogether pleasant day, I came home furious because I hadn't accomplished anything more concrete than the purchase of a pair of Keds. I had, I told myself, ''killed the day.''

It felt yesterday as if someone had covered the deteriorating apartment house on West 139th Street in Harlem with a giant electric blanket and locked the regulator on high. Two older women sat in the shadows just inside the building's open doors and waited for an occasional breeze to tickle the sultry stillness. ''This is the coolest place we could find,'' said one of them, Ida Walters, laughing softly as she shifted her weight in a kitchen chair just outside the open doorway of her apartment. ''I try to keep cool by doing just what I'm doing now. Sitting right out here. I turn on my fan for a while, but with Con Edison so high I can't afford to have it on long.''

The Reagan Administration has ordered American delegates to international development banks to support loans to Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The order, which reverses the Carter Administration's policy of not voting for such loans on human rights grounds, was based on a State Department determination that ''there have been significant improvements in the human rights situation in those countries,'' according to a department spokesman. The decision has drawn criticism on Capitol Hill from human rights activists, including Representative Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. Congress Was Told on July 1 ''That is simply not true,'' asserted Mr. Harkin, the primary author of a 1977 law that instructs the Government to oppose loans by international banks to countries that engage in ''a consistent pattern of gross violations of human rights.'' He said, ''This decision quite clearly violates the spirit and letter of the law.''

''TROPICAL 'Star Wars' '' was the way Issaye Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer, described it. That's more than others have said. Bobby Breslau's East Village apartment tends to leave many visitors speechless. Strange red, black, silver, black and white, patterned, stenciled, stitched and appliqued objects - many of which have long, Medusa-like fringes that spread out on the floor and cascade down the platforms - are clustered in corners, piled around plants, or hung from the ceiling.

The price of gold, which only a year and a half ago was at its peak of $850 an ounce, fell below $400 today - to $397.75 in London. It was the lowest level gold had reached since late 1979, when its price began to surge. Investors have been turning away from gold in recent months because the forces that attracted them to it -high inflation rates in Western countries and a weak dollar - have turned around, according to bankers here and elsewhere in Europe. Inflation has abated considerably, and the dollar, buttressed by high American interest rates and the world oil surplus, has strengthened.

RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER, poet, cartographer, futurist, maverick scientist and, most notably, inventor of the geodesic dome, did not know what to say. ''And that's unusual for me,'' he explained. The occasion was a surprise party Tuesday at the Science Museum of Philadelphia's Franklin Institute to celebrate his 86th birthday. And Mr. Fuller, or Bucky as he is known to his acolytes, was there under the pretext of giving a tour of the new ''Patterns'' exhibition, which deals with the relationship of mathematics to art, to the actress Ellen Burstyn.

A picture caption, supplied by Con- tact Press Agency, that appeared June 30 with an article about Soweto, in South Africa, gave the location incor- rectly. The photograph was taken in a squatter's camp outside Cape Town.

It was designed to be New York's chief weapon against organized crime. But 11 years after the state's Organized Crime Task Force was established, Attorney General Robert Abrams describes its record as a fraud, and other law enforcement officials portray the unit as inept or ineffectual. Since the task force was organized in 1970 it has produced no significant indictments or convictions of mob figures, law enforcement experts assert. State officials acknowledge that the agency has been hampered by a lack of trained investigators, poor staff morale, internal quarrels and jurisdictional disputes with local district attorneys.

Facing its first change in membership in nearly six years, the Supreme Court has just ended a term that affirmed the authority of the Federal Government to act in several important areas: to safeguard the health of workers, to regulate foreign travel in the name of national security and to override private legal claims in order to settle a major foreign policy crisis. It was a term that removed doubts about the constitutionality of televised trials and the all-male military draft, with the Court ruling that the Constitution does not require either but permits both. For the first time in four years, the term produced no major rulings on the subject of racial equality. But the theme of equality between the sexes dominated the term and found the Court less hospitable than it has been for years to allegations of unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of sex. Generally Narrow Rulings Following its longstanding practice, the Court for the most part ruled narrowly on the questions that reached it, preferring to rest its decisions on statutory interpretation rather than constitutional doctrine. Statutory rulings leave legislators free to change their minds.

The Reagan Administration today dropped two antitrust suits filed by the Carter Administration after acknowledging that it had created ''a more favorable atmosphere for mergers'' of big business. The suits involved the pricing of truck parts by Mack Trucks Inc. and a merger of two brick companies, the Glen-Gery Corporation of Reading, Pa., and a subsidiary of Ibstock-Johnsen of Britain. William Baxter, the Assistant Attorney General who is the Justice Department's antitrust chief, reviewed the suits before they were to be brought to trial, at the request of lawyers for the companies involved. Price-Fixing Alleged The suit against Mack Trucks was a civil action filed last January against Mack and the National Distributors Advisory Council, an association of independent distributors.