What was going on when I was born?

Democrats in the Assembly today proposed that the sales tax be extended to fees of lawyers, architects, engineers, accountants and other professionals. Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink said the new tax was designed to raise about $350 million, with about $300 million going to restore jobs and programs cut from Governor Cuomo's proposed $31.5 billion budget. The state sales tax is 4 percent, and New York City residents pay an additional 4 percent to the city and one-quarter of 1 percent for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The Bell System discovered yesterday that united it stands and divided it falls - at least in the bond market. After years of issuing gilt-edged securities, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and all but one of its subsidiaries and affiliates had their credit ratings lowered yesterday by Moody's Investors Service. Moody's, one of the two major debt rating services, said the move reflected increased competition and risks that the companies will face following the divestiture of A.T.& T.'s wholly owned operating companies next January. ''Technology and the deliberate fostering of competition by Government regulators have combined to make it difficult to have a totally sheltered business,'' Thomas J. McGuire, executive vice president of Moody's, said in an interview.

Two of the nation's top economic officials said today that the recovery was under way, but they tried to dampen expectations of a strong rebound. Martin S. Feldstein, the chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, said that statistics for January had overstated the strength of the recovery and that initial data for February were showing that the pace was much slower. Paul A. Volcker, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, also said that there had been ''a certain amount of wishful thinking in recent weeks'' and that the economy still faced serious problems.

An article in Sports Pages yesterday about a Japanese catcher who will receive a tryout with the New York Mets gave his name incorrectly. He is Yoshiharu Wakana.

YOUNGSTERS looking for something to do this weekend might consider hunting dragons, making creatures, meeting a banjo-strumming frog, tooting a trombone or observing people who only seem to be there. Such activities may seem more inviting than, say, a trip to a museum - but that is exactly where these and many other adventures may be pursued. Museums throughout the city offer extensive and imaginative programs for youngsters, especially on weekends, and this weekend's fare is bountiful. For instance, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where youth activities have expanded since the museum's Uris Center for Education opened in January, children and their parents will go on a search through the galleries tomorrow and Sunday for ''Creatures and Mythical Beasts.'' Grown-ups who come across the tour should not be taken aback if growls emanate from some of the smaller participants, who at some point may be seen loping or on all fours . Bosa Washburn, weekend supervisor, explains that during the sojourn for 5- to 8-year-olds, from 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. both days, she may ask them to show how they think this or that creature sounds or walks. She won't suggest that to the 9- to 12-year-olds during a more sophisticated version of the excursion, set for 1 P.M.

An article in Business Day on March 1 about Diet Coke incorrectly described the ownership of Jesse Meyers' Beverage Digest. The owner is Mr. Meyers.

American consumers took on $2.93 billion more in new installment debt than they paid off during January, the biggest monthly increase in nearly two years, the Government reported today. Most of the increase involved personal cash loans and financing for goods other than autos, the Federal Reserve Board report said. Often, big increases in outstanding credit are read as signs that consumers are gaining confidence and therefore becoming willing to go a bit deeper into debt by buying new products. However, a separate Commerce Department report today indicated that retail sales declined five-tenths of 1 percent in January and four-tenths of 1 percent in February, hardly suggesting any surge in buying on credit.

Shipyard workers in Gdansk have sent an open letter to the Polish Parliament demanding the restoration of the outlawed independent union Solidarity. The letter warned the Government that it cannot ''turn back the tide of history.'' At the same time, Lech Walesa, the leader of the union, called for ''protests, hunger strikes, strikes'' to halt a new wave of trials and arrests of Solidarity activists. Western diplomats said the two events seemed to be a part of a pattern of increasing tension and activity by the underground opposition and the Polish authorities. One diplomat said today that it was ''rather puzzling why it should be going on just now.''

The Suffolk County Executive ... .a Republican with a family tradition in politics and law ... .lives in Bayport, L.I. ... 45-year-old lawyer is married and has two children. ... ..born in Bay Shore ... his grandfather was a Surrogate, his father the Islip Town Supervisor and later a state appellate judge ... graduated from Manhattan College in 1959 and the Fordham Law School in 1963 ... went into father's law firm and was a lawyer for Town of Islip and the Sayville School District ... elected Supervisor of Town of Islip in 1972 and was re-elected to three more two-year terms ... lost race for Congress in 1976 and a race for a State Supreme Court judgeship in 1978 ... challenged and defeated fellow Repubican John V.N. Klein for County Executive in 1979 ... ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor last year. Charles R. Pierce Chairman and chief executive of the Long Island Lighting Company ... .60-year-old lawyer lives in Lloyd Harbor, L.I. ... he and wife, Virginia, have three children ... has been heard in radio advertisements explaining rates and company positions on public issues ... born in Bar Harbor, Me. ... attended Florida Southern College, 1939-41 ... served in Army Signal Corps in Pacific in World War II ... graduated from Hofstra University in 1947 ... law degree from Columbia in 1949 ... joined Lilco legal department in 1949 and rose steadily in company ... named secretary in 1962, vice president of customer and public relations in 1966, senior vice president in 1969, director and president in 1974 and chairman in 1978 ... member of New York State Power Pool executive committee.

Utilities may charge wholesale customers for the costs of building new electric generating plants before they go into service, Federal energy regulators decided. The move would raise the bills of consumers of about one-tenth of the nation's electricity. The utilities said it would improve their cash flow. (Page A1.) Two top economic officials cautioned that the recovery may not be as strong as some are expecting. Martin S. Feldstein, the President's chief economic adviser, said January data overstated the upturn's strength. And Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned against ''wishful thinking.'' (D1.)

Anne McGill Burford's resignation as head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Reagan Administration's promise to release subpoenaed agency documents will not slow the Congressional committees investigating the agency, several committee chairmen said today. Mrs. Burford's departure is ''really irrelevant to the overall process,'' said one of the chairmen, Representative James H. Scheuer, a Queens Democrat. The White House, meanwhile, began the delicate task of choosing a new Administrator in an effort to get the beleaguered agency back on course and to contain the political damage the prolonged struggle has caused the Reagan Administration. White House officials sought to mute the issue, declining to say anything about the agency except that they hoped to name the successor soon. But questions were being raised about whether Mrs. Burford says she decided to resign before President Reagan agreed to give disputed E.P.A. documents to Congress. Page A18. the Justice Department had given the President bad advice in persuading him to assert the doctrine of the executive's privilege to withhold documents rather than provide them to Congress.

The tropical storms that swept scores of homes into the Pacific Ocean and closed parts of the scenic oceanside highway this winter have fundamentally eroded long stretches of the California coast. Some marine scientists say the state has entered a period of intense weather, confirmed and accelerated by this winter's storms, that will slice deeper and deeper into California's coastline of more than 1,000 miles until many beaches have been washed into the sea. ''We are on an eroding coastline,'' says Dr. Douglas L. Inman, director of the Center for Coastal Studies of Scripps Institute of Oceanography near San Diego and the leading proponent of the view that many California beaches are doomed. Not all specialists in the field share his view, but most agree that the state's shoreline has been receding since 1978. And they say that over the last 30 years, when most development along its coast occurred, California was experiencing an atypical period of very mild weather. They say it is foolhardy for the Federal Government to foster home-building on the coast through subsidized flood insurance and low-interest disaster loans after storms. For years, East-erners have joked that someday part of California would fall into the sea because of a giant earthquake. The long-predicted earthquake has not happened, but powerful waves, nibbling away at the coast with awesome energy, have accomplished much the same result since the weather turned in 1978.