What was going on when I was born?

The Reagan Administration announced today that the Marines in Lebanon were now authorized to call on American naval and air power not only to defend themselves but to assist other Western forces and, in certain circumstances, the Lebanese Army. The move appeared to broaden possible American military involvement beyond the role that was set for the Marines when they began their assignment in the Beirut area nearly a year ago. The marines, who now number 1,370 on shore, were always authorized to fire in self- defense. The new instructions for the first time specifically allow offshore naval and air power to be used to help the other three Western members of the multinational force in Lebanon and to aid the Lebanese Army if it is being attacked in a way that endangers the Marines.

''HEY, is Gilroy over there?'' The shouted question came sailing from the pilothouse of a tugboat in the city's Lower Harbor as it passed another tug called the McAllister Brothers. ''Yeah!'' yelled back Bob Munoz, the captain and chief pilot of the McAllister Brothers. ''But there aren't any leftovers.'' This somewhat oblique exchange would have little meaning anywhere except in the tight little waterborne community of the city's harbor boats, where Gilroy - John Gilroy - is something of a legend. Deckhands have been known to ask to change crews so they will be teamed with Mr. Gilroy when he does his one-week-on, one-week-off cooking tours, stints that include quiches baked in his oil-fired galley oven, a variety of curries, veal and lamb roasts and thick chicken and barley soups.

''The nation that dramatically and boldly led the world into the age of technology is failing to provide its own children with the intellectual tools needed for the 21st century.'' - The National Science Board Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology. (D27:2.)

The House of Representatives moved today to reverse some of the domestic spending cuts enacted in the first year of the Reagan Administration by passing legislation that would increase authorizations for 10 education and health programs by $1.6 billion. The bill is part of a broader strategy by House Democrats to chip away at some of the legislation adopted at the peak of Mr. Reagan's popularity in 1981. But even if the spending increases never become law, the Democrats believe that, by forcing a series of votes on popular programs in the weeks ahead, they can embarrass their rivals and gain potent ammunition for the campaign ahead. Main Bill for the Handicapped The increases were attached to a noncontroversial bill extending programs for the handicapped. The legislation was adopted by a vote of 324 to 79, but in a more important vote earlier in the day an amendment that would have deleted the additional money was defeated, 283 to 124.

An armed security guard for the Wells Fargo Armored Service Corporation bound and apparently drugged two co-workers at a company garage here late Monday night and fled with $7 million in cash, the police said today. The two co-workers were not injured, and the police said the robber left behind a ''substantial'' but unspecified amount of cash. The suspect was identified as Victor Manuel Gerena, 25 years old, of Hartford, a guard with Wells Fargo since May 1982. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was called into the case.

Although miles apart in geography and atmosphere, the two areas share one distinction: Last week a report sponsored by Figgie International, a Cleveland-based company, using some objective statistics and some subjective observation, described both neighborhoods as among the safest in the United States. Here is a look at Ridgewood and Belmont and their residents. RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - The border here is marked by a road sign with a single staring blue eye. The caption, painted in peacock-blue letters on an unscarred white background, reads: ''Welcome to Ridgewood. Crime Watch.'' ''The people in this community are like family,'' said Police Chief Frank Milliken about this upper-income Bergen County township of 26,000, where he has lived all his life.

The Ford Motor Company today notified the 850 nonunion employees of its Rouge Steel subsidiary that the big mill would be closed, possibly within a year, because the company had been unable to reach agreement on concessions with the 3,500 unionized workers there. Ford officials said talks with the United Automobile Workers, which have been going on since May 24, had been broken off by the company. They made it clear that Ford was dissatisfied with the progress of the negotiations, in which Ford was seeking to reduce wages that it says are $5 an hour higher at Rouge Steel than in the rest of the American steel industry.

The Economy Sales by retailers fell 1.4 percent in August, the biggest such decline since June 1982, the Commerce Department reported. It said the biggest factor was a 9.2 percent drop for auto dealers. Experts described the decline as further evidence that the economy is slowing to a more sustainable pace of growth. (Page D1.) Consumers took on a record $4.84 billion more in installment debt than they paid off during July, the Federal Reserve Board reported. (D10.) The House voted to increase funds for 10 education and health programs by $1.6 billion in a bid to reverse some domestic spending cuts enacted in the first year of the Reagan Administration. (A1.) An alternative to mortgage subsidy bonds was described at a Senate hearing as a way to save the Treasury some $600 million. (D11.)

The Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday that it needed at least two years to assess the impact of the Westway on striped bass in the Hudson River before it could consider granting the project a permit. The study could delay a decision by the Federal agency on a dredging and landfill permit past Sept. 30, 1985, the deadline for trading in Federal highway funds for mass-transit money. If the Westway is ultimately rejected and the deadline passes, more than $1.8 billion in Federal aid could be jeopardized. ''There are problems,'' the State Transportation Commissioner, James L. Larocca, said, ''but they are not, at this point, fatal.''

COMBINE a passion for handmade foods, a curiosity about modern adaptations of old recipes and an insatiable desire for something new and you have a revival in the art of sausage making. That is what is taking place in home kitchens as well as in small shops and at fancy restaurants, where the butchers and chefs, disappointed with the quality and variety of the commercially prepared sausages, are making their own. Not just variations on old familiar themes - pork or veal with sage or coriander, garlic and black pepper, but also updated versions of the kinds of sausages no one has made in 50 or 100 years. Among them are pork sausages heartily seasoned with a robust red wine and caraway seeds; elegant sausages, stuffed with chicken and multicolored peppers or studded with foie gras, that are worthy of the finest terrine; sausages with sweetbreads flecked with spinach; subtle sausages of salmon mousse and bits of sweet lobster and shrimp, and sausages stuffed with oysters that expand the horizons of suitable breakfast foods. Oyster sausages were a popular breakfast item in early New England homes. Why this sudden interest in sausages, which have languished for years at the breakfast table or been buried in casseroles? Well, it depends on whom you ask.

A picture caption with the Thursday Sports listing on Sept. 1 incorrectly described the origins of the national men's tennis championships. They began in Newport, R.I., in 1881 and moved to Forest Hills in 1915.

THIRTY years ago today, when universities could still court ridicule and political reprisals for sponsoring research about human sexuality, the Alfred C. Kinsey Institute of Indiana University published ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female,'' an 860-page book that documented America's changing views on sexual conduct and enhanced the effort to establish sex research as a legitimate field of scholarly inquiry. The book, like its 1948 predecessor, ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,'' quickly became a best seller and further established the Kinsey Institute, whose headquarters is in Bloomington, as a world leader in sex research, a role that persists. ''The response was tremendous,'' said Dr. Paul Gebhard, an associate of the late Dr. Kinsey in recalling the appearance of the book on women, which far exceeded the reaction to the first volume. ''Suddenly sex was no longer a taboo subject. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to know more about women's attitudes toward sex and what had influenced those attitudes. This was a far cry from the 1940's, when we started researching the sexual practices of both men and women. The public thought we were kooks then.''