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.)