What was going on when I was born?

Friday BRUBECK 'MASS' PREMIERE The pianist Dave Brubeck has written more than 100 jazz pieces for his quartet. Less known, perhaps, are his six sacred works. The most recent, ''Mass: To Hope!'', will receive its New York premiere tonight at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall, with the Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Richard Westenburg. Mr. Brubeck, who studied composition with Darius Milhaud, will play improvisatory sections of the work with his quartet. Someone else playing those sections, he notes, would be free to play them in any style, not necessarily jazz. Also on the program are sacred works by two other living American composers: Conrad Susa's ''Hymns for the Amusement of Children'' and Aaron Copland's ''In the Beginning.'' Tickets: $11 to $18. To charge: 874-6770. CATCHPENNY TWIST' Two young Belfast songwriters, totally apolitical and bent on making it in show business, find they can't escape the troubles of Northern Ireland in Stewart Parker's ''Catchpenny Twist,'' which has its New York premiere tonight at 8 at the SoHo Rep, 19 Mercer Street. There's a live band, and songs sung by Jana Schneider in a part that Patti Lupone played when ''Catchpenny'' received its American premiere at the Hartford Stage in 1978. The music is by Shaun Davey, the lyrics by Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker is the author of another play set in his homeland, ''Spokesong,'' which ran at the Circle in the Square in 1979. Tickets: $8. Reservations: 925-2588. Saturday A DINOSAUR LIVES

A picture caption in some copies yesterday with articles about the State of the Union Message misidentified Maureen Reagan. She is President Reagan's daughter by his former marriage.

On Sunday, George and Catherine Layton plan to pick up their 6-year-old grandson, Mark Foster, and take him to the nearby Oakdale Mall. They want to visit a toy store, watch the fountain, then cap off the afternoon at Burger King or the Friendly Ice Cream Shop. For Mr. and Mrs. Layton, however, this is not just an ordinary weekend outing. It is the first time they have been allowed to see their grandson in more than two years, and it marks the culmination of a bitter court battle that began shortly after Mark's parents were divorced.

Congressional Democrats insisted today that President Reagan would have to make the first move if negotiations to close the budget deficit were to get anywhere. ''We want to find out where he is,'' the House Speaker, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., said at a press briefing today. ''He's running the Government; we're not running the Government.'' In his State of the Union Message Wednesday night, Mr. Reagan proposed a bipartisan effort to make a ''down payment'' of about $100 billion over three years on the deficit bill. Many lawmakers agreed with Representative James R. Jones, Democrat of Oklahoma, when he called the proposal ''a step in the right direction.''

''If I wrote a book, no one would come to my wake.'' - Meade H. Esposito. (B3:1.)

Midland Bank P.L.C. of London, which owns 57 percent of the outstanding stock of the Crocker National Corporation, has begun to look for a new chief executive officer for the California company's primary subsidiary, the Crocker National Bank, Ian Morison, assistant general manager of Midland, said last night. The move came after Crocker announced a $57 million loss in the fourth quarter and a $10.4 million loss for 1983. Currently, John B. M. Place is chairman and chief executive officer of both the holding company and the bank. Under the British system, the chairman of the holding company often acts merely as a figurehead, with the real power resting elsewhere.

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company yesterday reported a loss of $4.9 billion for the fourth quarter of 1983, by far the biggest ever by any company, because of extraordinary charges related largely to the breakup of the Bell System. The loss easily surpassed the previous record, $1.15 billion reported by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in the last quarter of 1982. It was also the last earnings report for the consolidated Bell System, which split into eight companies Jan. 1. A.T.& T.'s profits for both the year and the quarter were erased by a $5.5 billion after-tax charge against earnings, reflecting the revaluation of equipment that will be worth less in a competitive environment than it was when A.T.& T was primarily regulated. That charge was announced in October, although the final charge exceeded the $5.2 billion predicted then.

Even his critics conceded that President Reagan's State of the Union address was a stylistic success, but a sampling of opinion in the business community - though largely pro-Reagan - was divided on the speech's substance, or, to some minds, lack of it. ''I absolutely agree with the President,'' said William R. Howell, chairman and chief executive officer of the J. C. Penney Company. ''We feel better about ourselves. We feel more confidence. He expressed this effectively and with substance.''

President Reagan today accused Walter F. Mondale, the leading candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, of trying to ''buy support'' with costly promises to special interest groups. The President, who is scheduled to announce his plans for the election on Sunday, plunged avidly into his first party-financed campaign trip of 1984 with an attack on rival Democrats in which he invoked John F. Kennedy's call to Americans, ''ask not what your country can do for you.'' ''Once Democratic candidates encouraged people to work together,'' Mr. Reagan told a Republican rally here. ''Today we see candidates trying to buy support by telling people what the country will do for them and making promises to interest groups.'' Reagan aides said these remarks were a comment on Mr. Mondale's candidacy although Mr. Reagan never named the former Vice President.

NEW YORK not only never sleeps, it also never stops noshing. Midnight ramblers who prowl nightclubs, movies, theaters and discoth eques often contract munchies long after the moon crosses the flashing ball atop the Empire State Building. A short time ago, options for late- night dining were not overwhelming: a plate of sauerkraut and Alsatian sausage at the 24-hour Brasserie on East 53d Street; a mile-high pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli on Seventh Avenue near 56th Street, which serves until 4 A.M.; or, for those trying to repair bodily damges after a long, bibulous campaign, liters of black coffee at the Market Diner on West 56th Street.

Because of a printing error in some copies yesterday, an article in Business Day on airlines' earnings attributed a deferral of dividend payments due Feb. 15 to the wrong airline. The deferral was made by the board of Eastern Air Lines, not the Trans World Corporation.

Young men are harassing travelers arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown and the two train depots in Manhattan by hailing taxis for them and demanding payments. Sometimes the youths demand $2 or $3 for opening a cab door at a taxi stand. Other times, the youths latch on to passengers inside the bus terminal and at Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal, carrying luggage to a taxi and asking for $5 to $10 for each suitcase. Cabdrivers are complaining about the practice, which often involves intimidation of out-of-town visitors, but police officials say it is not easy to stop.