What was going on when I was born?

Getting into the country's best colleges has not been a problem for graduates of Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School, but this year's seniors have run into an obstacle: as part of a union boycott, their teachers are refusing to write them letters of recommendation. Students at the school, which year after year is a leader in producing National Merit Scholars, apply to so many highly selective colleges and need so many letters of recommendation that faculty members say they end up using too much of their own time in the evenings and on weekends writing the letters. So, the Stuyvesant chapter of the United Federation of Teachers voted to conduct a boycott and write no letters until steps were taken to lighten the burden on teachers at the school, at 345 East 15th Street. Hopes are strong that the impasse can be resolved at a meeting this afternoon at which the union members will consider a proposal that is a result of a joint effort by union leaders and school officials.

International Quebec meets defiance in imposing langua ge law A2 Israel reorga nizes military governments in occupied lands Around the Wo rld A5 Poland announ ces price increases, but union objects A9 Reporter's no tebook: New subway to rescue of old Prague A10 Amid Lebanon' s lawlessness, a record hashish crop A12 Nine Burmese villages go where the river takes them A15 Government/Politics Atlantans vote this week in a mayoral primary A16 Jersey candidates reflect on lack of recognition B3 Limits sought on Freedom of Information Act B12 In the capital, E.P.A.'s chief is known as "The Ice Queen" B15 Reagan to name high-level panel on voluntarism B15 Washington Talk Briefing B10 Embassy Row: a look at Washington's diplomatic corps B10 Adminstration complaints disturb Voice of America staff B10 The calendar B10 General Around the Nation A16 Weekly paper in Mississippi, much praised,closes A18 Scotland Yard will seek extradition in theft of rare books B3 Danbury, Conn., opens its last state fair B3 Industry/Labor Machinist leader regrets lack of aid for air controllers B13 Health/Science A $1.5 million study on the cause of birth defects begins B13 Sports Monday Auto Racing: Mears wins Watkins Glen 200 C5 Baseball: Playoffs begin after the strangest season C1 Guidrey to start playoff opener against Brewers C7 Royals play today to decide playoff home- field advantage C7 Torre more successful as player than manager C8 Boxing: Hagler seeks title fight with Leonard C5 Columns: Ira Berkow on Joe Torre C1 Dave Anderson on Brad Van Pelt C4 Features: Sports World Specials Question Box C11 Football: Jets, Dolphins play to 28-28 tie C1 Field goal giver Cardinals 20-17 victory over Cowboys C3 Packers dominate Giants, win by 27-14C4 Horse Racing: Bettors at Belmont get a touch of Paris C2 Outdoors: The waterfowl season begins C11 Statistics C10 Tennis: Ashe stays with McEnroe for Davis Cup final C6 Religion Women sponser the writing of a Torah B8 Mormons tell of being mistaken for C.I.A. agents abroad B14 Style Relationships B18 The other side of the generation gap B18 Helping women make a new life after a mastectomy B18 Arts/Entertainment New Dance USA Festival begins in Minneapolis C12 "Nicho las Nickleby," 8 1/2-hour dramatization of Dickens C13 "Kurt Weill Encore" at Whitney C13 Scola's "Passion d'Amore" at Film Festival C14 "Looks and Smiles," a film by Kenneth Loach C14 "Man in the Crowd," a sports fan's memoirs, is revived C16 Crown names Br uce Harris to head three divisions C16 Two filmmakers look at lengthy marriages C18 NBC's "Saturday Night Live" returns in new guise C19 News Analysis Bernard D. Nossiter on communique of third- world group A4 Drew Middleton on NATO's southern flank A11 Reginald Stuart discusses the Haitians' choice B11 Adam Clymer on problems Reagan faces among blacks B16 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A20 Unfinished voting rights Now tackle inlfation directly David C. Anderson: crime Letters A20 Anthony Lewis: Looking at the premises A21 Flora Lewis: cease-fire in Salvador? A21 J. Morton Davis and Charles M. Haar: for credit controls A21 Tom Miller: Reagan's new immigration program A21

Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger and Senator John Tower, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, fueled a potentially tumultuous national debate over President Reagan's new plan for nuclear weapons today by disagreeing over the capability of the plan to make the nation safe from Soviet attack. Mr. Weinberger asserted that ''on all counts, we have a vastly increased and strengthened strategic program to close this window of vulnerability as soon after it opens as possible.'' The ''window'' is an allusion to to Soviet capability for hitting American missiles in silos. The Defense Secretary acknowledged that ''there isn't any way of permanently guaranteeing to the American public that missiles in known silos can be made invulnerable.'' But he said the President's proposal to ''superharden'' the silos would enable them to survive for a number of years.

Purchasing managers at 225 leading industrial companies across the United States are increasingly pessimistic about the future of the American economy, according to a survey by the National Association of Purchasing Management. The trade group - which since the 1930's has been conducting a monthly survey of managers who purchase raw materials and goods for their companies - said that all the indicators in its September poll pointed to a slumping economy.

As the first World Food Day nears, on Oct. 16, the sponsoring agency, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, is disseminating statistics purporting to show the dimensions of the world hunger program. ''In 1981 at least 420 million people do not have enough to eat,'' the agency's literature says. Increasingly, however, the unqualified assertion of such statistics is being challenged. Indeed, a vocal minority of critics maintain that the world hunger problem has been vastly exaggerated. Problem of Tragic Scope And most academic experts in the fields of food, nutrition and demography, while convinced that world hunger is a real problem of tragic scope, none- A World to Feed Tenth article of a series a ppearing periodically. theless agree that behind confident statements about the number of the underfed there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty. As Prof. Thomas T. Poleman of Cornell University put it in a recent interview: ''We simply don't have sufficient evidence to estimate the numbers of hungry people. There is no basis for coming up with concrete estimates.''

More than 500 people - as many as could fit into Schimmel Auditorium at New York University - gathered over the weekend to hear one scholarly talk after another on the work of Hannah Arendt, the German-born political thinker who died of a heart attack in her Riverside Drive apartment in 1975. Political philosophers from France, Britain, Israel and the United States did most of the talking. Some of it was reverent, some critical, some laborious and some, by the audience's account, inspired. But by the time the three-day crowd filtered out of the building for the last time yesterday afternoon, many seemed to feel that they had confronted a person and a mind of remarkable stature, and one that demanded attention even when her ideas were infuriating. Whether Hannah Arendt will leave marks as deep as some of her philosophical predecessors is impossible to know. Certainly, few fellow theorists today would add her portrait (dark-eyed, contemplative, her cigarette dangling from her fingers) to some latter-day ''School of Athens'' alongside Plato, Locke or Marx. Yet if an attentive crowd is a valid measure, she has left as deep a mark as any of her contemporaries.

Joe Torre was dismissed as manager of the Mets yesterday after four and a half years of trying to rebuild one of the most persistently losing teams in baseball. The decision was announced at Shea Stadium in the eighth inning of the final game of the season, which the Mets won from the Montreal Expos, 2-1. It was made, said Frank Cashen, the general manager of the club, because ''we want desperately to win, and the club simply decided to go in another direction.'' Torre thereby became the seventh manager discharged during a turbulent season in the major leagues, a season marred by labor trouble and interrupted for almost two months by a players strike. He also became the second manager dismissed in New York within a month, following Gene Michael of the Yankees, who was replaced by Bob Lemon on Sept. 6.

Baltimore DESPITE their conspicuous presence, the American League division playoffs will feature elements other than George Steinbrenner's former and present managers. True, Billy Martin and Dick Howser will match tactical skills in the Western Division playoff that begins tomorrow in Kansas City, and Bob Lemon will exercise his quiet managerial moves in the Eastern encounter starting Wednesday night in Milwaukee. However, it is the players who play for those managers, as well as for Bob Rodgers of Milwaukee, who will, in the end, determine which two teams will play for the league pennant next week and the American's spot in the World Series. Martin (1976 and '77), Lemon (1978) and Howser (1980) all have managed the Yankees in postseason play. This week Lemon, who began his second tenure with the Yankees only four weeks ago, will take Steinbrenner's team against the Brewers while Martin will lead the Oakland A's against the Kansas City Royals, whom Howser began managing Aug. 31. Although anything is likely to happen in this bizarre baseball year, in which a players' strike induced the owners to create these extra playoffs, these are the elements and the players who could be the key factors in the best three-of-five-game series: - Yankees - The late-inning relief pitching of Rich Gossage, the hitting of Reggie Jackson, who has been tremendous in October, and Dave Winfield.

Many of the nation's bankers believe that interest rates will decline one or two percentage points from current levels but that they will remain relatively high at least through early next year. But few of the 10,000 bankers gathered here to attend the annual convention of the American Bankers Association claim any prescience. Many have been badly burned in past months by basing investment decisions on expectations of a substantial decline in interest rates, only to see them rise rather than fall. Underlying the uncertainty is substantial uneasiness about projections of large Federal budget defici ts and the possible effect that persistent high rates will have on custo mers.

After 21 years as a Grumman engineer, Ray Lokkenberg wasted no time when he heard that a Texas conglomerate wanted to take control of the company that he says is more like a family member than an employer. He called a stockbroker and bought 300 shares of Grumman. People who work outside Grumman's 500-acre fenced-in reservation - with its huge assembly-line buildings and no-frills offices - might think he was out to make some quick money. Mr. Lokkenberg paid less than $35 a share for stock the LTV Corporation was offering to buy for $45 a share. But profit was not really what he had in mind.

The body resting in Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin was removed from its grave today, and a team of examining pathologists said that the remains were indeed Oswald's. The finding appeared to end speculation that the corpse might have been that of a Russian agent sent here to kill President Kennedy in 1963. ''We, both ind ividually and as a team, have concluded beyond any doubt, and I mean beyond any doubt, that the individual buried under the name Lee Harvey Oswald in Rose Hill cemet ery is Lee Harvey Oswald,'' said Dr. Linda Norton, head of the team of pathologists whoexamined the remains today at Baylor Universi ty Medical Center here. The pathologists were said to have determined the body's identity mainly by comparing its teeth with Oswald's Marine Corps dental records. They also found on the body the scar of a childhood mastoid operation mentioned in the military records.

An article on Saturday incorrectly attributed a quotation about hiring Teamsters to "go in and knock their heads off" in a White House discussion in 1971 on how to deal with antiwar protesters. The speaker, according to a White House tape recording, was former President Richard M. Nixon.