What was going on when I was born?

The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, the largest of the local Bell System companies scheduled to become independent in January 1984, continues to stagger from a long-running regulatory war between the State of California and Pacific's parent, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The accumulated damage from the dispute, plus heavy competition and other factors, have placed Pacific Telephone in the worst financial shape among the 22 local operating companies to be divested by A.T.& T. under a consent decree with the Government made final in court late last month. Its return on equity is an anemic 8.78 percent. Its ratio of debt to total capitalization, at 56 percent, is the steepest of the local operating companies. And its debt rating is the lowest; it was last pared by Standard & Poor's to A-in 1980, extending a gradual decline from AAA, the highest rating, in 1973. Its dividend has been raised only once in the last 10 years.

Administration officials said today that they had received cautiously worded positive reactions from Arab nations - including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -to President Reagan's Middle East proposals before his speech Wednesday. ''We didn't go into this in the blind,'' a key Administration official said. ''We didn't have a clear green light, but we did have an amber light.'' King Hussein of Jordan, on being approached by American diplomats last week with a private version of Mr. Reagan's plan, indicated his willingness to go along with it if he was given a mandate by other Arab leaders, but he made no commitment. Administration officials say that the ground was thus prepared for the President's speech Wednesday night, that they do have a strategy and that at least some of the parties consider the plan to be workable.

By now, the grandfatherly mail carrier in a Republican National Committee commercial is a familiar figure to millions of television viewers. ''For gosh sakes,'' he says as if counseling a group of impatient children, ''let's give the guy a chance.'' The ''guy,'' of course, is President Reagan. Democratic spokesmen have stewed for weeks about the political advertisement depicting the postman delivering Social Security checks with a cost-of-living raise and crediting Mr. Reagan for it. The Reagan Administration had actually sought to reduce the increase, the Democrats say. Whatever the merits of this criticism, White House political advisers say they have decided to use the mail carrier's plea for patience as the unifying theme in the campaign activities of the President, the Republican National Committee and the party's campaign committees in the Senate and House. In a new series of television commercials now being released, the patience theme will be broadened into an argument that because the President's economic program needs more time to work, he deserves additional Republican support in Congress to keep the Democrats from rolling back his economic reforms.

International Israel rejected Washington's plan for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, asserting that President Reagan's proposals would help create a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel's security. Despite Mr. Reagan's appeal for a freeze in Jewish settlement of the occupied territories, Israel's Cabinet also voted unanimously to press the establishment of a Jewish population in the areas to consolidate Israel's hold on them. (Page A1, Columns 4-6.) Jordan reacted favorably to the American peace initiative. Amman withheld formal comment, but made clear that it viewed the proposals as promising as long as some doubtful provisions were clarified. (A8:1.)

Chinatown business and civic leaders have formed a group to oppose a proposed city jail on the western edge of the neighborhood, and they vowed yesterday to fight the plan with public protests and legal action. ''We're very much opposed,'' said Charles P. Wang, chairman of the group, the Coalition for Lower Manhattan, which includes more than 80 business, civic and community groups. ''It will hurt the overall climate of Chinatown. It's just going to create a new ghetto.''

''Since the positions of the Government of the United States seriously deviate from the Camp David agreement, contradict it and could create a serious danger to Israel, its security and its future, the Government of Israel has resolved that on the basis of these positions it will not enter into any negotiations with any party.'' -The Israeli Cabinet. (A8:6.)

Senior civil servants from four countries of Western Europe will meet here Friday to discuss ways of easing the dispute with the United States over supplying components for a Soviet gas pipeline, officials of the British Foreign Office said today. Representatives of Britain, France, West Germany and Italy plan to lay the groundwork for a meeting they hope to hold next week with Washington officials. Companies in all four countries hold contracts to supply the Russians with pipeline parts using American technology. President Reagan has embargoed dealings with such companies as part of his effort to block support for the 3,700-mile pipeline, which is designed to move natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe.

The Israeli Cabinet voted unanimously today to reject President Reagan's plan for Palestinian self-rule in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, asserting that the American proposals would lead to a Palestinian state and ''could create a serious danger'' to Israel's security. Despite Mr. Reagan's appeal for a freeze on Jewish settlement in the territories, the Cabinet decided to continue a vigorous program of establishing a Jewish population there to consolidate Israel's hold on the areas. Israel, the Cabinet declared, will reserve the right to apply sovereignty over the territories at the end of the five-year transition period of Palestinian ''autonomy'' envisioned by the Camp David accords. Faster Settlement Ruled Out But a proposal by hard-liners to increase the pace of settlement and annex the West Bank received virtually no support, officials said. The Government decided to keep its rejection rhetorical and shun operational moves in the hope that the Reagan plan would simply die.

Stock prices advanced strongly again, closing at the highest level of the year. The Dow Jones industrial average, buoyed by a surge of institutional buying in big-capitalization issues, climbed 14.35 points, to 909.40. Analysts said the market, continuing the pattern that has prevailed since the rally began in mid-August, turned strong as soon as profit taking had subsided. (Page D1.) The price of gold soared more than $32 an ounce in New York in response to growing fears about the world financial system. In Latin America, the heads of the central banks of Mexico and Chile resigned and Bolivia's private banks suspended foreign currency transactions. There was also an unconfirmed rumor that Argentina had defaulted on foreign debt payments. On the Comex, gold rose $32.10 an ounce, to $438. The dollar fell against most major currencies. (D1.)

New York law-enforcement officials said yesterday that, at this stage of a nine-day-old investigation, they believed that Nathan Masselli had probably been murdered because of a dispute over money with associates of his father and not because of any involvement in a Federal inquiry into allegations against Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan. According to the officials, there is circumstantial evidence indicating that the motive for the slaying was a disagreement over the assets of a company once headed by William P. Masselli, the father of the 31-year-old victim and a reputed organized-crime figure. The officials emphasized that their current conclusions were based on their latest findings and were still tentative. A key puzzle in the case is what happened to the assets of William Masselli's concern, Jopel Trucking and Construction Company. Last March, Mr. Masselli, who is now serving a Federal prison term, disposed of the company's main assets - 23 trucks valued at $650,000.

The difference between a normal human gene and one that can transform cells into cancer or a cancer-like state of undisciplined growth can be as small as only one chemical sub-unit among several thousands, according to a report to a scientific meeting here today. Such a small but potent abnormality was found in studies of a gene isolated from cells of a human bladder cancer. It is believed the first case in which the difference between normal and cancerlike growth has been pinpointed to any such minute chemical change. As such, the finding is a significant advance in the understanding of cancer. It may eventually aid in treating the disease, but the scientists involved in the research said it was far too soon to know when or whether that would be so.

An obituary of Ruby Gillespie Allen Wednesday omitted one survivor, a son, Charles Allen Jr. of Long Island City.