What was going on when I was born?

The nation's two largest banks yesterday reported their earnings for the third quarter, conveying two sharply contrasting reactions to falling interest rates. The BankAmerica Corporation, the nation's largest bank holding company, reported that its operating income fell 13.7 percent, to $103 million, or 70 cents a share, compared with $119.3 million, or 81 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Citicorp, the nation's second-largest bank holding company, said operating income in the third quarter increased 55.6 percent, to $210 million, or $1.61 a share, from $135 million, or $1.07 a share, in the same period last year. While Citicorp and other leading banks benefited significantly from declining interest rates, BankAmerica's net interest income rose only 2.8 percent in the quarter, to $733 million, compared with $713 million in last year's quarter. The net interest margin - the spread between the bank's cost of funds or deposits and what it earns on loans - fell to 3 percent, from 3.1 percent in the 1981 period.

The Education column in Science Times yesterday gave two incorrect figures for California high school seniors' Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. From 1972 to 1980, scores on the mathematics section dropped an average of 21 points. The average on the math section this year was 474.

THE first image conjured up by the word ''bread'' is that of a sliceable loaf, its shape a matter of custom and ethnic preference. Americans tend to think of all breads as baked in ovens - oblong loaves, flat breads, round loaves, crusty ovals or sticks of baked dough almost as sturdy as baseball bats. Baking, so goes the conventional wisdom, means cooking in ovens. The fact is, baking means cooking by dry heat. For thousands of years cooks have been turning out bread in whatever way is convenient to their mode of living, by a process that may take place in an oven or on a heated surface of stone or iron. Such cooking may result in risen loaves to be cut with a knife or in pliant cakes as flat and accommodating as a tortilla. There is considerable sport in turning out your own breads at any season of the year, and there is little doubt that many good cooks choose the cooler months to ply the gentle art of baking. Among the more obvious advantages of loaves baked without the aid of the usual oven - say, on a crisp October day - is the ease with which such breads can be made. To some beginners the whole act seems simpler.

Unheralded, arriving in a squadron of sleek corporate jets, 21 senior executives of several of the biggest corporations in the United States arrived here today for private talks with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his Cabinet about the investment climate here. The unusual gathering, which included top officers of six major oil companies, was to have been held in secrecy, An official of the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs, who helped coordinate the meeting, said the executives agreed to come only after the Niagara Institute, a business-sponsored research group that is the official host for the meeting, agreed to protect their identities. But the sense of something unusual in the air was signalled to Ottawa on Monday night, when the first of a daisy chain of American corporate jets began arriving at normally sedate Ottawa International Airport. Even as their passengers were being whisked through customs and downtown to a special 34-suite wing of the green-gabled Chateau Laurier Hotel, where employees were ordered to disclose nothing about their charges, the capital's highly-developed rumor mill was beginning to work.

ARISING tide of inexpensive wine from Europe is rolling across the Atlantic to American consumers in response to sharply expanding demand here, and bargain bottles are showing up in stores all across the country. Not since the early 1970's have such attractive buys from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, among other countries, been available here, and importers say the situation probably will get even better as time passes. The factors responsible are the strong American dollar and the large supply of wine available from European exporters, who are fearful that the supply will become even greater with the 1982 vintage, which is now being harvested. This year's crop of grapes in Europe may set a record, adding to the downward trend in wine prices. The bargains could not be arriving at a better moment for consumers seeking to stock up for the autumn season of entertaining. It is probable that the wine cost element in the party budget will be the lowest in years or the quality will be the highest - or both.

''There is no alternative than to agree to give parts of the land of Israel away if it will bring peace.

Robert Farrar Capon is an Episcopal theologian, author and food writer whose next book, ''The Youngest Day: An Island's Seasons in the Light of Grace,'' will be published next spring by Harper & Row. JOHN DONNE, that master of extravagances both secular and sacred, put the case for this season as forcefully as anyone: ''In heaven it is alwaies Autumne.'' The phrase led him to speak of mercies that were ''ever in their maturity'' and of a God who came ''as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries.'' At the very least it can lead us to aim the heavenly comparison at the foods of fall.

John Z. DeLorean, the chairman of the DeLorean Motor Company, was arrested here today and charged with possession of more than 59 pounds of cocaine. Officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Mr. DeLorean was the ''financier'' of a scheme to sell 220 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated $24 million, in an effort to shore up his financially troubled automobile company. Mr. DeLorean's arrest came only hours after the British Government announced that it would permanently close his company's operation in Northern Ireland. (Page D11.)

Despite the customary lavish receptions, this year's annual convention of the American Bankers Association is not a particularly joyous affair. It is clear that few banks represented here - or communities where the institutions do business - have been totally spared by the recession. This year, in fact, at least partly because of the troubled economy, there are only 10,000 bankers and spouses attending, compared with 12,000 at last year's convention in San Francisco. Much of the chatter at this year's meeting is whether the bankers will be able to afford to attend next year's convention, which will be in Hawaii.

ENGLISH cooking is often the subject of japes and jests, but I can recall a number of incredible meals in Britain, feasts that seem somehow more vivid in the memory now that fall has arrived and one's thoughts drift to hearty, sustaining fare. I remember enormous breakfasts in Scotland and Ireland and London for which the tables were laden with huge roasts of gammon ham, platters of grilled kippers and finnan haddie, grilled tomatoes and expertly scrambled eggs, delectable jams and preserves and a spectacular assortment of breads, crumpets, scones and the finest of sweet butter, plus coffee and tea. There is also that venerable British specialty, the meat pie. A fine, fitting centerpiece for an autumn meal, it has the notable advantage of being economical as well as delicious. For steak and kidney pie - perhaps the best-known of the meat pies - you do not by any means need the most expensive cuts of beef such as fillet or top round, and kidneys are relatively cheap; beef kidneys in my local supermarket cost 60 cents a pound. In addition to steak and kidney pie, Pierre Franey and I have devised a recipe for shepherd's pie that can be made with ground beef or lamb, turned into a tasty ragout and baked beneath a layer of well-seasoned mashed potatoes.

Eddie James Carthan's election as the first black mayor since Reconstruction prompted euphoric predictions of a new dawn for blacks in this tiny Delta town. Five years later, Mr. Carthan is going on trial for the third time since his victory, this time on charges of murdering a political rival. And blacks, who make up 75 percent of the town's population, last year elected whites to run Tchula once again. The soil of Tchula's and Mr. Carthan's troubles is a rich mixture of political enmity, ignorance, struggles for economic control of a town with 30 percent unemployment, and bizarre, sometimes violent, incidents. All are steeped in decades of racial mistrust that is magnified by blacks' efforts here and elsewhere to share, if not seize, political control. It is a story drawn from interviews with more than three dozen people familiar with aspects of the events, as well as a review of public statements and legal documents.

President Amin Gemayel of Lebanon asked President Reagan today to consider expanding the size and scope of the international peacekeeping force in Lebanon to help bring about an early withdrawal of Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian forces, a senior State Department official said. Mr. Reagan, according to the official, agreed to give ''serious consideration'' to the request, which could lead to an increase in the number of American marines assigned to the force of American, French and Italian troops. The combined force now numbers 3,400 men. Although the two-hour session at the White House and a later meeting involving senior aides were described as having gone well, there was no optimism at the end of the day among American officials that there would be a rapid solution to Lebanon's problems. 'Difficult Negotiation' Foreseen Reporters were told by the senior State Department aide that large problems lay ahead in trying to work out a formula for ending the Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian military presence in Lebanon.