What was going on when I was born?

THE Connecticut River appears to be the dividing line for outbreaks of gypsy moth caterpillars this year. According to state entomologists, residents east of the river can expect the worst, while those who live west of the river and got the brunt of last year's defoliation will see less of it. These predictions are based on ongoing counts of the buff-colored egg masses that were laid by female moths last August. The eggs can be found on tree trunks, fence posts, stone walls, garbage cans and house shingles. Professional entomologists are still out in forests and woodlands completing egg counts. Dr. John F. Anderson, the State Entomologist and the head of the Department of Entomology at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, said they had found a lot of egg masses east of the Connecticut River.

AFEW years ago, when most families were spending 25 percent of t heir incomes on their homes, they had the other 75 percent to c ushion unexpected house expenses. If real estate taxes went up, theyb ought fewer clothes; if utilities went up, they cut theater-going a nd restaurants. Now, when it costs so much more to buy and run a house, most families are spending 30 to 35 percent of their incomes on their homes, some are spending well over 40 percent, and the cushion is much thinner. When such families are hit by unexpected housing costs, they have to cut spending on necessities, not just frills or luxuries, and the adjustments can be painful.

ALBANY THE Suffolk County law requiring a 5-cent deposit on all beverage containers is scheduled to take effect on Thursday, amid a cloud of confusion and uncertainty that has prolonged, if not intensified, the already fierce debate surrounding it. The state is considering action that would gut a major portion of the deposit law, beverage industry officials are seeking a court injunction to block the carrying out of the law and the Legislature is considering various antilitter proposals, including one that would nullify the Suffolk law. The industry asserts that the law is ''vague'' and that the packaging of alcohol beverages is pre-empted from local control by the State Alcohol Beverage Control Act. A hearing on the case has been scheduled for tomorrow in State Supreme Court in Riverhead. Industry officials have asked that enactment of the law be delayed pending the outcome of that hearing.

THE ripple effect from last week's dumping of sludge spoil in Long Island Sound within two miles of Lloyd Neck has spilled over into the Island's political arena. Despite efforts by the Republican Representatives from the North Shore to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from permitting the dumping, Democratic officials in the Town of Huntington and in Suffolk County asserted that the delegation did not try hard enough. ''It's very clear to me that they did not do a thing,'' said Robert J. Mrazek, Democrat of Centerport, who is the minority leader of the Suffolk County Legislature and a potential candidate for a House race on the North Shore. Although the Congressmen sent letters to the White House and to Interior Secretary James G. Watt protesting the Army engineers' action, Mr. Mrazek said that ''sending a letter does not make up for the hard work needed to stop this thing cold.''

DUTCH SHEA, JR. By John Gregory Dunne. 352 pp. New York: The Linden Press/Simon & Shuster. $15.95. JOHN GREGORY DUNNE, reporter, essayist, novelist, scriptwriter, wry observer of California mores, is best known for two of his five earlier books. ''Vegas'' (1974) is a partially fictive memoir of a dark night of the soul spent in appropriate surroundings. ''True Confessions'' (1977) is a grand novel (as one of Mr. Dunne's professional Irishmen might say) and a grand movie, the script for which was written by Mr. Dunne and his wife, Joan Didion. If you liked these earlier books, you will like ''Dutch Shea, Jr.'' For one thing, the heroes of all three books are ''people without illusions'' -except for the illusion that they are without them.

Finding themselves in the unusual position of having to play in a close tournament game, Georgetown's Hoyas found a way today to reach their most important test. The Hoyas were not artistically successful in their 50-46 semifinal victory over Louisville. They were merely successful. The Hoyas made just six field goals in the second half, and did not make one for the last 10 minutes 15 seconds. They attempted only three field goals in the final seven minutes. But they made 11 foul shots in the last 6:47 - including 10 of 13 in one stretch - and they coolly protected a small lead in the face of Louisville's frantic pressure defense to move into the National Collegiate Athletic Association title game, against North Carolina, for the first time since 1943 when Georgetown lost to Wyoming.

After hours of concern over predicted weather conditions at the landing site, officials of the space agency decided today not to order the space shuttle Columbia back to earth a day early but to proceed with plans for a landing Monday as scheduled. The seven-day test flight of the re-usable winged spaceship is now set to end at 2:27 P.M. Eastern standard time on a desert landing strip at the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. By going the full duration, the astronauts, Col. Jack R. Lousma of the Marine Corps and Col. C. Gordon Fullerton of the Air Force, will have circumnavigated the earth 115 times, logging 3.4 million miles since their launching last Monday. Improved Weather Forecast The decision to adhere to the original flight plan was announced early this afternoon on the basis of new weather reports indicating that the clouds and gusty winds at White Sands should move out of the area by Monday. The forecast is for high-altitude clouds, light breezy winds and only occasional gusts.

Under a starless sky early this morning, the 80-foot English yacht First Cooperative cut through the dark, flat seas of the North Atlantic, driven by a 20-knot breeze that had just filled in from the east. According to the latest position reports, First Cooperative was running third in the 244-boat fleet on the last leg of the 27,000-mile Whitbread Round the World Race. This leg began four weeks ago in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and ends in Portsmouth, England. First Cooperative had covered more than 5,500 miles on the leg and had another 1,000 miles to go, and after two days of light fluky winds it finally appeared as if the yacht had a strong, stable fresh breeze.

DESPITE the coming attractions, the military coup that opened in Guatemala last week quickly began to look like just another remake of the old classic. Sixteen days after presidential elections that had been widely attacked as fraudulent, military officers assembled 2,000 men and, with a few tanks, artillery pieces and helicopters, moved into the capital's central plaza and seized the presidential palace. They thereby took control of Central America's largest country (population 7.5 million), with the support of some right-wing civilian politicians who thought it would be an ''interim'' takeover until new elections could be held.

SAN SALVADOR FOR some time, this tiny nation has been exerting a disproportionate influence in the hemisphere. Today, as El Salvador sought to ease its conflicts through elections, warring interests in the region scurried to appear equally eager for a peaceful resolution. Young officers last week ousted Guatemala's military President, Romeo Lucas Garcia, and the new junta said it wanted to inject flexibility into the country's hard-line governing style. Mexico said the United States and Nicaragua had agreed to a high-level meeting next month, but the State Department said the announcement was premature. Earlier, Washington sent Gen. Vernon E. Walters, an ambassador at large, to Havana, where Fidel Castro, in a four-hour discussion, indicated willingness for further talks. But that prospect was ''daunting,'' Assistant Secretary of State Thomas O. Enders said; Mr. Castro appeared unready to meet United States demands. American diplomats hinted that after today's Salvadoran elections they would be disposed to consider the negotiated settlement the guerrillas have been proposing. But other Administration officials held out small hope for the assorted negotiations; none of the participants, they said, were ready for compromise but none wanted to appear uncompromising.

The Justice Department has blocked the United States Attorney in San Diego from seeking the indictment of the former head of Mexico's security police because the Central Intelligence Agency advised that he was a key American intelligence source in Central America, according to department officials. The United States Attorney, William H. Kennedy, asserted Friday that since last November Justice Department officials have withheld approval to prosecute the man, who is a former chief of Mexico's Directorate of Federal Security. Mr. Kennedy said that the American intelligence agency described him as its ''most important source in Mexico and Central America.'' The Mexican is a suspect in a theft ring involving $8 million in stolen cars. Senior Justice Department officials today confirmed Mr. Kennedy's account, including the role of the C.I.A., but said they were angered by his comments. They said dismissal of Mr. Kennedy was under consideration. He was appointed to his post last year by President Reagan.

NEW HAVEN IN a comfortable, Victorian-vintage dwelling on the Yale campus, lawyers, sociologists and university students are investigating what they say is perhaps the least understood aspect of American society - the behavior of hundreds of thousands of educational, scientific, cultural or civic groups operating as nonprofit organizations. These organizations - their ranks include schools, museums, libraries, antipoverty agencies, hospitals and garden clubs - are collectively referred to as the independent or voluntary sector. ''The nonprofits have been a nonsubject for American scholars,'' said Prof. John G. Simon, who has directed the undertaking since it began four years ago. The Yale program on nonprofit organizations is the only one of its kind in the country, although it has spun off a few related research ventures at other universities. The program, conducted within the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale, also has working relations with scholars in 11 countries.