What was going on when I was born?

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. said today that relations with the Chinese Communists faced ''a very worrisome specter'' over the question of American military sales to Taiwan. In a candid statement about the difficulties the United States faces in its relations with the Chinese Nationalists in Taiwan and the Communists in Peking, Mr. Haig told an audience in Palm Beach, Fla.: ''In the period ahead it is going to be essential to both Peking and the United States to handle this particular question with great sensitivity and care.'' Warning From the Communists The Communists have warned that, if the United States supplies the Nationalists with advanced fighter planes or other modern equipment, this could lead to a deterioration of relations. As a sign of disquiet, Peking has delayed sending a military mission here to discuss possible arms purchases of its own. According to American officials, the Chinese Communists have said that they will not do so until the United States makes known what it will do about supplying military equipment to the Nationalists.

What Howard E. Rollins Jr. remembers best was the moment when he came in for the second screen test and met O.J. Simpson coming out. He had already passed through three auditions at director Milos Forman's apartment, two readings with other actors, and an initial test for the part of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a part which is to the movie version of ''Ragtime,'' which opens Friday at the Coronet, what a mainspring is to a watch. And all the time he knew, deep in his gut, that the role of the fiery black turn-of-the-century piano player who is willing to kill and to die to retain his dignity was going to go to somebody else, because Howard Rollins was nobody at all, except for maybe ''Who was that guy who was so good in that Off Off Broadway thing we saw a couple years ago?''

NEWARK THE board of directors of NJ Transit, the state's mass-transit corporation, is scheduled to vote in two weeks on whether to impose another round of fare increases and service reductions on all its bus and rail lines this year. At its regular meeting last week, the board discussed the need to close a projected budget gap caused by decreased ridership and further cuts in Federal aid, but it postponed a decision until Nov. 24 to give it time to get a clearer picture of the Federal cutbacks. Two days later - on Thursday - the House-Senate Appropriations Conference Committee voted to cut NJ Transit's operating subsidies for the 1982 fiscal year by $1.5 million, or roughly 3 percent. That is significantly less than the 12 percent across-the-board cut that President Reagan had asked for in September.

On the perimeter of Fort Allen, where the inexorable tropical vegetation tries to take back its own, vines ease over the barbed wire and thick vegetation hides the old military installation from view. Grass grows knee-high in the shady gardens of the abandoned officers' quarters, and there is a certain lushness in the midst of the isolation and decay. In the four compounds that hold 778 Haitian refugees, however, there is not a blade of grass, not a tree, only asphalt shimmering in the heat and wire fences topped with shiny new rolls of barbed wire. For shade, there are dormitory tents of canvas stretched over plywood frames. For seating, there are cots inside the tents. Since Aug. 12, the Haitians have been waiting at Fort Allen for the end of the odyssey that for many began months earlier when they fled Haiti in small boats. As the delay grows, so does the sense of desperation and the conviction that they have been forgotten.

ROSLYN HARBOR In 1969, Nassau County acquired 145 acres of land here for $3.5 million and termed it the William Cullen Bryant Preserve, since it was near Cedarmere, the Long Island home of the widely respected newspaper editor, essayist and poet. Five years later, in a 25-room brick Georgian mansion on the property, the county established the Museum of Fine Art, where today it presents large art and sculpture exhibitions. Now 19 acres remaining from the original parcel of land, which comprised the former estate of Childs Frick, the multimillionaire paleontologist and art collector, are being eyed by developers as a site for new houses. The property, along the northern side of Northern Boulevard, is between Glen Cove Road on the east and the Roslyn Viaduct on the west.

A TIARA of lights 325 feet above the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge glowed majestically last night as the 1,675-foot-long span marked its golden anniversary. But the official celebration - partially eclipsed, perhaps, by the hooplah that accompanied the George Washington Bridge's 50th birthday on Oct. 25 - will not be held until tomorrow. One of three bridges linking New Jersey and Staten Island, the Bayonne was dedicated on Saturday, Nov. 14, 1931, but did not open to traffic until 5 A.M. the next day. (The others, the Outerbridge Crossing at Perth Amboy and the Goethals at Elizabeth, were already in service.)