What was going on when I was born?

FOR anyone fortunate enough to have a substantial income, small private real estate syndications are becoming an attractive form of investment. Syndicates are groups of individuals who pool their capital for an agreed length of time to purchase income-producing property. Participants share in the personal income tax deductions the ownership of such property affords. They also share in any growth in the value of the property, paying tax on that increase, when it is realized, at the low, capital gains rate. Investing with others gives them access to properties they otherwise might not be able to buy, and it also shares the risks.

House Democratic leaders have blocked a sweeping revision of immigration law, which the Administration has supported, out of fear that President Reagan would score a political coup by vetoing it. Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., Democrat of Massachusetts, conveyed that message to Attorney General William French Smith at a meeting in the Capitol on Thursday, according to Congressional sources and Justice Department officials. Mr. Smith vigorously denied that a veto was planned and pressed for House action on the measure, which the Senate approved in May. C. Anson Franklin, a White House spokesman, denied today that the President intended to veto the bill. ''Any decision on the bill would be made on the basis of the merits of the bill and not on the basis of politics,'' Mr. Franklin said. He noted that President Reagan had strongly supported the measure.

Andrea Darvi is the author of ''Pretty Babies: An Insider's Look at the World of the Hollywood Child Star,'' to be published Oct. 31 by McGraw-Hill. Industry insiders are well aware that certain aspects of the child acting business never change. Stage mothers are still bundling their talented tots from classrooms to casting calls. Agents are representing youngsters who, as always, tend to grow quickly, talk fast and at 12 or 13 suddenly cannot find work. The child stars of yesteryear still gaze back on the old days with fondness. ''If I hadn't been a child actor,'' remarks Mickey Rooney, ''I would have prayed to God, because I couldn't live without it.''

Carl Yastrzemski, who inherited the Red Sox left- field job from Ted Williams 23 years ago, said goodbye today in a 58- minute pregame ''Yaz Day'' celebration at Fenway Park. Yastrzemski, who will retire Sunday after his 3,008th game, the most ever played by a major leaguer, ended the festivities with a dramatic and emotional trot round the playing field during which he shook hands with fans and waved to the sellout crowd of 33,491. ''I always tried to control myself over the years,'' said Yastrzemski after the ceremony. ''I always tried not to show emotion, just block everything out. I was trying to show today that, deep down inside, I'm as emotional as anybody.''

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s general board voted overwhelmingly today to support Walter F. Mondale for the 1984 Democratic Presidential nomination. The vote gave the former Vice President his second major labor endorsement in two days. Mr. Mondale received the endorsement of the directors of the National Education Association on Friday, providing his campaign with a psychological lift and also with considerable political resources to use against his six potential rivals for the nomination. A straw poll among 1,900 Maine Democrats today added to the psychological lift, at least, by giving Mr. Mondale a majority. (Page 32.)

Since it was deeded by King Charles I to the Earl of Sterling in 1615 not much has changed on Robins Island, except its price. The 440-acre island in the middle of Peconic Bay at the end of Long Island is still mainly a wilderness but it is on the market now for $10.8 million.

This article was reported by Jeffrey Madrick and William Wolman and written by Mr. Wolman. THE official tone at the International Monetary Fund's annual conference in Washington last week was guardedly optimistic. The forecasts framing the discussion called for an economic recovery in the industrial nations modest enough to allow interest rates to subside but rapid enough to enable the nations of the third world to begin working down their mountainous debt. ''The recovery is growing strongly and the adjustment process is working very fast,'' declared Jacques de Larosie re, the I.M.F.'s managing director, with considerable confidence. The conference focused on replenishing the resources of the I.M.F. and other world lending agencies. Officials clearly felt threatened by the balky United States Congress, which has yet to vote an increase in the American contribution to the fund. But the general view at the meeting was that once Congress comes through - which most expect - the I.M.F.'s slow-growth game plan for dealing with the world financial crisis, adopted at last year's meeting in Toronto, would work.

IN professional football, when offenses become so highly developed that scoring points is too easy, rules are changed to help the defense. Then, when it appears that the redesigned defenses have repulsed the offensive development, rules are changed to help the offense. Back and forth it goes. Action, reaction. The same sort of counterpunching occurs with the development of formations and plays. Because football coaches are such creatures of habit and routine, revolutionary theories are only rarely introduced into practice. But when they are, and when they are successful, they become the norm, borrowed by others and refined until the next landmark development makes them obsolete.

SuperpowersTurn to UnquietDiplomacyMuch as President Reagan had used the downing of Flight 007 to launch his harshest condemnation of the Soviet system and leaders, Yuri V. Andropov punched back last week with an unusually sharp denunciation of President Reagan and Washington. This time the subject was missiles and the exchange put a new chill on the already frosty superpower relationship. Addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, the President offered what he described as ''important initiatives'' in the deadlocked talks in Geneva on medium- range nuclear missiles in Europe.

It was once the Beekman Downtown Hospital, but the hospital vacated the old seven-story brick structure years ago for more modern quarters. Now the building at 117 Beekman Street has a new life as the Seaport Park Condominiums where 26 apartments are selling for $175,000 to $625,000.

EVEN for the airline industry, where upheaval has become endemic, the events of the last eight days unraveled with startling force. First, Continental Air Lines said it was filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code and would lay off its 12,000 workers. Then last Tuesday, it slashed its route structure and hired back a third of its employees, at about half their former salaries, to staff a much smaller airline. Later that morning, Eastern Airlines moved. It showed its 37,500 employees a taped message from Frank Borman, its chairman, warning that unless they accepted wage and benefit concessions, Eastern may have to file for bankruptcy like Continental or shut down as Braniff Airways did in May 1982, when it, too, filed under Chapter 11.

AT the heart of the Bronx commercial district where Fordham Road intersects the Grand Concourse, shoppers fill the sidewalks, young mothers push strollers with one hand and pull shopping carts with the other, clusters of teen-agers price new fashions in shop windows and old people pick their way slowly through the bustle, all to the cacophony of automobile horns and music blaring from storefront loudspeakers. But a few blocks east of the Concourse and down the hill, where Fordham Road meets Third Avenue, the bustle stops and the streets are almost empty. To the north stand the grounds of Fordham University. To the south are beat-up apartment buildings and vacant lots littered with glass and boards and chunks of concrete. Orlando Munoz sits in a lounge chair at the intersection and sells hot dogs and sausages from his blue van. His is one of the few businesses in the area, and business is slow. But he knows that things will be changing soon, now that plans finally are set for Fordham Plaza, a $60 million retailing and office complex. ''I'm looking forward to it,'' Mr. Munoz said. ''The sooner, the better.''