What was going on when I was born?

''It's not the end of the world. I frankly don't think that the minds of the people on the issue of how they will vote will be changed, whether the election is held tomorrow, a week from tomorrow or a month from tomorrow.''

With bewilderment, rage, gallows humor and perhaps most of all a sense of deja vu, New Yorkers resigned themselves yesterday to their latest municipal crisis. As Consolidated Edison's power failure spread a mantle of chaos over the city's commercial and financial centers, thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers spilled into the streets at midafternoon to find themselves once again matching wits with an electrical breakdown. For some, it was sheer adventure. For others, it was an exercise in survival. For some, it was an opportunity to laugh. For others, it was an invitation to rail against fate. For some, it was an chance to serve. And for others, it was an opportunity to exploit.

EXECUTIVES By ROBERT J. COLE Leading Wall Street brokerage firms are cautiously forecasting that the stock market will end the year in somewhat better shape than it is now, a spot check showed yesterday. Predictions on where the Dow Jones industrial average will stand by the end of the year ranged from a bearish 880, expected by Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., to a bullish 1,017, forecast by Shearson/American Express Inc. One leading market analyst, when apprised of various other forecasts, remarked that he was surprised that the predictions were not lower. ''For any meaningful improvement in stocks,'' he said, ''we have to have improvement in bonds and the money market, and bonds are more chaotic than stocks.'' He, however, declined to offer his own prediction, or to permit his name to be used.

Angry at Wall Street's skepticism to ward President Reagan's economic program, reflecte d in high interest ratesand the plunging stock market, Republican lea ders today threatened to seek new restrictions on the financial mar kets, such as credit controls and a windfall profits tax on intere st. ''It's time indeed,'' warned Howard H. Baker Jr., Republican of Tennessee, the Senate majority leader, ''that the financial markets realize that they're playing a dangerous game.'' He said that he hoped to see a more favorable response from Wall Street not within weeks or months, ''but days.'' Meanwhile, on its first day of business after a five-week summer recess, the House rejected another effort by conservatives to stop Federal financing of legal aid for the poor. (Page B15.)

A power failure in the Wall Street area yesterday afternoon forced the New York and American Stock Exchanges to end trading 30 minutes early and disrupted business in the nation's financial center. ''We're in darkness here,'' said Charles Storer, public information officer for the New York Stock Exchange at 11 Wall Street, shortly after the explosion at the Consolidated Edison Company's East 14th Street station. ''The only light is coming through the window.'' But soon after power was restored in the early evening, spokesmen for both exchanges said that trading would resume normally at 10 A.M. today. ''We don't expect any operational problems,'' said Victor Ricciardelli, a vice president of the Amex.

Helen Suzman, apartheid foe, keeps battling on A2 James L. Buck ley leaves Paki- stan, refus es press conference A4 Around the World A5 Khomeini calls for stepped-up fight against guerrillas A6 U.S. outlines joint aid program for Caribbean basin A7 Bolivian labor leaders live on the run A12 U.S. signs two aid accords with Nigeria A13 Angolan says 15,000 South African troops remain in his country A14 Government/Politics Vernon Jordan resigns as presi- dent of National Urban League A20 Civil rights commission backs ex- tending Voting Rights Act A21 Reagan hears both sides on plans to cut military budget B11 G.O.P. leaders vow to seek power for Reagan to impound funds B13 House defeats effort to cut Fed- eral support for legal aid B15 Health/Science Cornell professors to check stu- dent's cancer findings A24 General Around the Nation A18 Louisiana opens first alligator season in 18 years A18 Eight nuclear facilities warned on reactor hazard A26 Panel told commercial flights will be held at 75% in 1982 A29 2 officers slay guard they mistake as a robber B2 Blackout knocks out some Wall Street computer systems B9 Education/Welfare Iowa school district rejec ts Bible as supplementary textbook A18 Striking teachers arrested briefly in Philadelphia A25 The Home Section Home On the vertical: An innovative three-level loft C1 History of a West Side solar sys- tem C1 Design Notebook: A Victorian mansion that wouldn't die C1 Hers C2 Helpful Hardware C2 Home Beat C3 Use of plant therapy is on the in- crease C3 Home Improvement C4 Galleries display current crafts C5 Home improvement courses: From carpentry to mechanics C6 Calendar of Events C7 Children's earnings: Learning to save C8 Graining: Wood with a false face C11 Gardening C12 Arts/Entertainment Opera Orchestra to present con- cert version of Boito's "Ner- one" C16 "Old Glory" by Jonathan Raban is reviewed C20 Frank Sinatra opens engagement at Carnegie Hall C30 ABC-TV giving "premieres" of "Best of West" comedy C30 David Brinkley denies feud is be- hind his leaving NBC C31 Sung Il Lee and Me Hyon Moon in violin-piano recital C31 Obituaries Hideki Yukawa, physicist who won Japan's first Nobel D23 Sports Canada beats Soviet, 7-3; Finland ties U.S., 4-4, in hockey B16 McEnroe, Gerulaitis and Miss Austin gain semifinals B17 Mets beat Pirates, 5-3 B17 Cosmos win, 2-0, and eliminate Rowdies from playoffs B17 The fall of Ticky Burden, former Knick B17 Bonds hits two homers as Cubs down Cards, 7-3 B18 Yankees beat Brewers, 5-2, then lose, 5-3 B19 Maree beats Ovett in 3:48.83 mile B21 Dave Anderson on the talent of John McEnroe B21 Features/Notes Notes on People B4 Sports People B21 Going Out Guide C30 News Analysis Edward Schumacher on Bolivian government changes A11 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 Why lock all voting machines? A distress signal from Egypt Renewal in the schools Taking the heat off synfuels Letters A30 Anthony Lewis: God and Jonah at Yale A31 William Safire: a tale of six golden apples A31 David Newsom: Russians in An- gola - this is news? A31 Peter A. Peyser: the U.S. sugar daddy A31

LOFTS are truly all-purpose residential living spaces: They can be converted to suit a range of tastes and needs. Raw loft spaces can become extravagant single rooms or can be transformed into more conventional apartment layouts. As living spaces, lofts are popular because they offer design elements that are always at a premium - space and light. And while downtown loft dwellers often sacrifice some uptown amenities, they have found that all lofts are not the same. Like the proverbial ''best house on the block,'' the most desirable loft is situated on a corner and has plenty of windows and natural light.

American consumers bought $1.95 billion more on credit than they repaid in July, taking on new installment debt more slowly but also paying off old debt at a slower pace than in June, the Federal Reserve Board reported today. Outstanding consumer debt rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7 percent - about the same as in June -the report said. New consumer debt in July was about $28.75 billion, compared with $29 billion in June, the report said.

President Reagan and Prime Minister Menachem Begin were reported today to have agreed on the need to strengthen strategic ties between the United States and Israel to counter what is seen as a Soviet threat to the Middle East. Israeli officials, briefing reporters on the first round of meetings between Mr. Reagan and Mr. Begin and their top aides, said they were very pleased by the substance and the tone of the talks. They said that Mr. Reagan had given orders to Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, in the presence of the Israeli officials, ''to open a new era in Israeli-American relations'' by working out details for closer military and other security ties. American officials had already said that they intended to seek an enhanced strategic relationship with Israel during Mr. Begin's visit, but they had not talked in terms of a ''new era.''

France's new coalition Government of Socialists and Communists today approved a sweeping new nationalization law to take over 36 privately owned French banks, effectively putting 95 percent of all deposits under state control. The law also permits the takeover of 11 of the country's biggest industrial groups. Trading in the shares of the companies concerned was suspended today. The nationalization plan, which will cost billions of dollars, is believed to be the biggest ever carried out by a Western democracy. Pierre Beregovoy, the Government spokesman, said at the end of the Cabinet meeting where the plan was approved that it would ''free the economy from the financial powers that are suffocating it and restore all its dynamism.''

EVERY summer renter knows by this point in the season that there are houses that sing and dance, houses that speak in a soft low voice and houses that just lie down and die. Very large houses of the middle and late Victorian periods have tended to lie down and die for quite some time now. Here and there civic pride has kept them alive. So has corporate ambition, and so has the Victorian Society in one or another of its international ramifications. New money has been tempted, just once or twice. But fundamentally the very big Victorian house is on the outs. It would be difficult to think of one that was more demonstrably on the outs, around 20 years ago, than the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in Norwalk, Conn.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret O'Brien Steinfels is a writer and ed itor. By MARGARET O'B. STEINFELS ''MANHATTAN GOES SOLAR'' was the bold contention of a magazine headline three and a half years ago when a solar water-heating system was installed at 924 West End Avenue, a 13-story, 65-apartment cooperative at 105th Street. The system was introduced on Sun Day, May 3, 1978, and for a short time afterward busloads of solar-power advocates, schoolchildren and other visitors arrived at the building's ornate front entrance for ''solar tours.'' Since that brave beginning Manhattan has not, obviously, gone solar, and even the residents of 924 West End have ceased to give their system so much attention - or confidence. They are not without hot water, but after receiving periodic reports of technical hitches, they are not sure how much hot water has come from the sun's rays and how much from the building's trusty if somewhat inefficient boiler. They are pretty sure they have not saved the predicted $5,000 to $8,000 a year on the building's oil bill.