What was going on when I was born?

Community School Board 3 on the West Side of Manhattan has been thrown into turmoil by the discovery of expenditures in recent weeks of more than $1,000 drawn on a school board account for such items as limousines, liquor and cash. According to board members who have seen copies of canceled checks, the checks were signed by the Rev. Jerry Evans, chairman, and Janet MacAdam Gatto, the treasurer. Concerned board members say that they have had no contact with Mr. Evans since last Wednesday and that Mrs. Gatto refused at a hurried meeting to say whether the signatures were hers. Neither person could be reached independently for comment.

Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., refusing again to rule out the use of military force in the Caribbean region, says that it is wrong to draw parallels between American involvement there and in Vietnam because Central America is at the heart of American strategic concerns. In an interview in his office on Friday, Mr. Haig spoke at length about the debate over the Administration's concerns about Cuban and Soviet backing for insurgents in the region, and the increase in American military and economic aid for the area. Mr. Haig arrived tonight in Madrid on the first stop of a weeklong trip to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Rumania. In Madrid, he will represent the United States at a meeting of the Conference on European Security and Cooperation at which he plans to lead Western foreign ministers in accusing the Soviet Union and Poland of violating the human-rights section of the Helsinki Final Act by imposing martial law in Poland.

President Reagan will venture into the bracing 1982 election air of Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana this week, offering his theories of federalism and his record as a fund-raising attraction to a region that is critical to the hopes of his party this fall. The trip begins Monday, the first stop Bloomington, Minn., a Minneapolis suburb, where two fund-raising events are scheduled. On Tuesday the President is to address the Legislatures here and in Indianapolis. His whole mission is more a dress rehearsal than an opening night. It is an occasion for a President reputed to have ''long coattails'' to try out his appeals on behalf of others and to show his party that he is serious about the 1982 elections. The trip is also a tryout for members of the opposition; a few thousand protesters are expected here Tuesday. Mr. Reagan's proposed Federal budget provided grist for the protesters. It also was a target for such Democrats as Attorney General Warren Spannaus of Minnesota, who said that recommended cuts in emergency heating assistance and college student loans showed that ''Reagan is a disaster for everybody, but especially for Minnesota.''

A sampling of the opinions of purchasing managers from the nation's industrial companies indicates that the economy remained weak in January. However, the rate of decline slowed, according to the survey, taken by the National Association of Purchasing Management and released yesterday. Referring to the slower rate of decline, Charles Haffey, chairman of the association's business committee and vice president of corporate purchasing for Pfizer Inc., said, ''The key in January's figures is the rate. The really bad news is employment.''

Budget Director David A. Stockman contended today that there were few acceptable alternatives to President Reagan's proposal for a $91.5 billion deficit in the budget for the fiscal year 1983. And he said Congress would be substantially responsible if the President's budget was not approved and the economy stalled. Mr. Stockman argued, as the President's top economic advisers did when the 1983 budget was released Saturday, that Wall Street should not be too worried about the size of the projected deficits - $98.6 billion in 1982, $91.5 billion in 1983 and $82.9 billion in 1984. Fiscal 1983 begins Oct. 1.

Archbishop Jozef Glemp, the Roman Catholic primate of Poland, said today that Poland was ''sick'' and that its people were ''overcome by anger'' at events in their country. To an emotional congregation in the Church of St. Stanislaus in downtown Rome that filled every available space inside and in the courtyard, the head of the Polish hierarchy said: ''We are confident that, with God's help, we will be able to explain to ourselves the reasons for our anger, in a dialogue, and not by force. Poland must not become an arena of bloody confrontation. No one must be allowed to manipulate our wrath, because the people want to shed this illness of rage all by itself, and emerge all in one, and healed.''

Like many other new companies in the electronics industry, the Synapse Computer Corporation is being backed by venture capitalists who have given it start-up funds in return for a stake in the company. Some of Synapse's backers might seem unusual, however. They include vice presidents of the Digital Equipment Corporation and Prime Computer Inc., two companies that Synapse will compete with if it is successful in developing its new computer, according to its president, Mark Leslie. The backers also include Jesse I. Aweida, chairman and president of the Storage Techonology Corporation, a data storage company that is planning to enter the computer market. The Developing Trend This appears to be a growing trend in the electronics industry: Dozens of officers of established electronics concerns, many of them once backed by venture capital, are becoming venture capitalists themselves. They are investing their own money either directly in new companies or in venture capital partnerships, which in turn invest in new companies.

Prospects that the Reagan Administration will press its plan for accelerated decontrol of natural gas prices have dimmed noticeably in the past few weeks. Severe winter weather, a continued economic slump and a rapidly closing deadline for new legislation have combined to spread the view among supporters and opponents alike that a bill for faster decontrol now has probably a less than 50-50 chance of approval by Congress this year. For the pas t six months, President Reagan has had before him a proposal by h is chief energy advisers that he submit a bill that would phase o ut price controls on natural gas. Repeatedly he was thought to be on the verge of doing so, but each time the President pulled back, apparently on the advice of those who warned him that Congress was not receptive.

One step in preparing tax returns that many people enjoy is completing Schedule A, where the costs of ever ything from straightening a child's teeth to the sales tax on a new car can be itemized and deducted. Last year the courts approved deductions for everything fr om hair transplants for a prematurely bald man to the cost of whisk y prescribed by a doctor to relieve angina pain. A wide variety of medical expenses, ranging from vitamin pills prescribed by a doctor to prosthetic devices for patients recovering from mastectomy, are deductible as long as the cost exceeds a certain level. The rule is that an individual can claim only those expenses that exceed a ''floor'' for total medical expenses of 3 percent of his or her adjusted gross income. But half of all medical insurance premiums, up to a maximum of $150, can be deducted regardless of whether the taxpayer qualifies for other medical deductions. (The other half is treated as an ordinary medical expense and is subject to the 3 percent floor.) Medicine and drugs are also deductible, but before they can be added to other medical bills subject to the 3 percent floor they must first be reduced by 1 percent of the taxpayer's adjusted gross income.

As officials from the New York area began closer scrutiny of the social-service cuts proposed in President Reagan's budget, new areas of major concern began to emerge today in programs ranging from legal services to reimbursement for the protection of diplomats. The New York City and State budgets would be hurt most, the officials said, by a proposal to make them pay by 1986 for incorrect disbursements in the Medicaid, food stamp and Aid to Families with Dependent Children programs. At the same time, the budget proposes to reduce sharply the Federal share of the three programs' administrative costs designed to reduce abuse and fraud. New Cuts Called 'Roughly Same' Mayor Koch described the dimensions of the proposed cuts as ''a war on the cities.'' In an informal briefing at Gracie Mansion, he said that New York City sustained Federal cuts of $460 million last year and that the new round would ''roughly be the same.''

Calvin Natt spoiled Maurice Lucas's homecoming as a Knick tonight by making two key free throws and outjumping Lucas for the game-saving rebound as the Portland Trail Blazers scored a 100-98 victory before 12,666 fans at the Coliseum. Natt scored only 11 points but he had 11 rebounds, and his play in the final minute helped save the close, physical game for the the Trail Blazers. Lucas finished with 17 points - making only 7 of his 17 shots from the floor - and grabbed seven rebounds. The game marked a return as a Knick to Portland for Lucas, who helped the Trail Blazers win the league title in 1977. Portland traded him to New Jersey for Natt and two first-round draft choices in the middle of the 1979-80 season. Lucas joined the Knicks before this season.

''We are confident that, with God's help, we will be able to explain to ourselves the reasons for our anger, in a dialogue, and not by force.