What was going on when I was born?

An obituary of Lotte Lenya on Satur- day said incorrectly that she had re- ceived an Oscar. She won an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the film ''The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.''

In California's Silicon Valley, many firms boast about an assortment of employee benefits such as flexible work hours, swimming pools and Friday afternoon social hours. But Convergent Technologies, which makes desk-top work stations for the so-called office of the future, marches to a different beat - that of a military march. ''There is no question,'' says the president, Allen Michaels, who puts in six-day workweeks and expects his employees to do the same, ''this is the Marine Corps of the computer industry.'' By any measure, Convergent Technologies has had an unusually successful beginning. In two years, it has recorded $10 million in sales and has gotten at least $350 million in orders from large computer manufacturers.

Manuel Rodriguez worked for nine years as a union pipefitter in the Chicago area before deciding in 1977 to start his own business. When he won his family's support to use the three-bedroom stucco house that he built in his spare time as collateral for a $30,000 starter loan, he was on his way. Business has been good for Mr. Rodriguez, and in the last fiscal year his company, R & D Piping, Heating and Plumbing Inc., had revenues of nearly $2 million, largely on the strength of Federal and state contracts won on a competitive bid basis. And, like all small-business men, he is trying to cope with the recession. But for Mr. Rodriguez and other Hispanic and black entrepreneurs, the problems of the economic downturn have been aggravated by a Federal Government that they feel is ready to abandon special assistance programs before minority businesses have matured enough to stand on their own.

In a development that has surprised and disturbed New York City housing officials, a rapidly growing number of properties being taken through tax foreclosure are occupied one- and two-family homes. The city now owns about 1,000 such buildings in all five boroughs. It expects to add 1,500 more next spring when it takes title to tax delinquent properties in Brooklyn, where the problem is the worst. In addition, the city owns 1,000 vacant one- and two-family buildings and expects to acquire 1,500 more vacant ones next year.

THERE was a song in Dave Winfield's heart and salami-and-eggs on his paper plate. This was in the Bagel Nosh near the Yankee outfielder's apartment in Fort Lee, N.J.; it was on the morning before his debut as a bass-baritone on a float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. ''I don't know how they talked me into singing,'' said Winfield, his black mustache stretching wide as he smiled. In gray suit and vest and dark tie, Winfield, at 6-foot-6-inch, 220-pounds, looked natty and large. ''The only singing I've ever done was in the shower, or late at night.'' So Winfield had been practicing the song, ''Manhattan,'' with feeling, with growing confidence, and with a little added surprise that might delight the folks at Herald Square - just as, for the most part, he had delighted the fans at Yankee Stadium.

Richard V. Allen, the White House national security adviser, announced today that with President Reagan's approval he was taking a leave of absence until the Justice Department completed its investigation of his receipt of $1,000 from a Japanese magazine that interviewed Nancy Reagan. Mr. Allen, in the first of what are expected to be a number of public appearances to give his side in the controversy, insisted that he had done ''nothing wrong'' but acknowledged that he had Excerpts from interview, page B12. exercised ''bad judgment'' in not immediately reporting his receipt of the cash to the White House counsel's office. Leave Effective at Once ''It's time that this case be aired in a responsible forum, and that it not be made on the basis of innuendo and sly allegations,'' Mr. Allen said, reflecting his annoyance over some news articles concerning his receipt of the cash on Jan. 21 and his relations with some Japanese businessmen.

The International Business Machines Corporation has won a hotly contested battle for a communications contract from the West German Government, it was announced today. The Government-run Postal Ministry awarded contracts for I.B.M. to supply the central computers for the West German version of videotex, called bildschirmtext. Videotex is an electronic communications system being developed now in several countries that uses telephone lines to transmit information from central data banks to commercial and private users, where it is displayed on a color television screen.

''It's time that this case be aired in a responsible forum, and that it not be made on the basis of innuendo and sly allegations.

Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan predicted today that the current recession would not be so steep as many private economists believe. Mr. Regan, speaking on ABC television's ''This Week with David Brinkley,'' said the nation's economic growth would decline only between 3 and 3.5 percent in the final quarter of 1981 rather than the 5 percent predicted by most private economists. While the Treasury Secretary reiterated the Administration's view that the economy will pull out of the recession by spring, he conceded that the unemployment rate in the United States would remain near or above its current 8 percent level even after the recession ends. ''By the fall of 1982, the economy will be coming back,'' he said. ''It won't be humming along as fast as we might like, and unemployment will probably be in the 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent range,'' Mr. Regan said.

Every year at this time, a rising sense of anticipation grips Japan. During the next few weeks, a ritual occurs that is not only of central importance to Japanese households, but also, in the view of many executives and management specialists, helps explain why Japanese companies are doing so well in world markets. It's bonus time in Japan. Paying bonuses to employees is by no means a practice peculiar to Japan. But the Japanese bonus system is distinctive: At larger companies, the midyear and year-end bonus payments together amount to five or six months' worth of salary, with the bigger of the two coming in late November or early December.

Easily and powerfully, the Jets scored their fifth straight victory, defeating the Baltimore Colts by 25-0 at Shea Stadium yesterday. The victory kept the Jets atop the American Conference East with an 8-4-1 mark and also guaranteed their first winning season since 1969. They have done it with a remarkable stretch against, arguably, weak teams - the Colts, for example, have now lost 12 straight games. But they have done it. Yesterday's points were produced by two players -Freeman McNeil, the elusive rookie runner, who scored his first touchdowns rushing in the pros, and Pat Leahy, who booted four field goals and an extra point.

Senegalese soldiers arriving in Ndjamena to help control the civil war there. They have been asked by President Gou-kouni Oueddei to act as a buffer between his forces and those of his challenger, Hissen Habre. Four other African nations have agreed to provide additional troops.