What was going on when I was born?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. T HE taxi driver taking the young man back to his Manhattan hotel decided to add some sightseeing at no extra charge. He had picked up his passenger at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and now the cab was heading south on the Henry Hudson Parkway. As they reached 72d Street, the driver, adding commentary to the sightseeing, said to the young man, ''This is where it happened.'' ''Oh, really?'' Andre Robertson remarked. In relating the incident the other day after a Yankee workout here, Robertson explained his reaction to the taxi driver's disclosure to him. ''I didn't know,'' he said. ''I don't know what happened. I'm glad I don't. I don't like waking up screaming in the middle of the night, worrying about the car flipping over or whatever happened. I don't even know.''

The departure of the United States Marines from Beirut's international airport marks the end of one phase of American involvement in Lebanon. But the almost simultaneous shellfire from the battleship New Jersey against targets ashore has left unclear what happens next for United States policy. A key question is whether the pullback of the Marines to Sixth Fleet ships and the resumption of fire by the New Jersey's 16-inch guns is a tactical ''redeployment,'' as President Reagan has insisted, and thus a prelude to even more intense use of American naval and air power to shore up President Amin Gemayel against his Lebanese opponents. The ground rules for the departure of the Marines as announced by Mr. Reagan on Feb. 7 certainly have left that as a possibility. And it is the chance of a stepped-up military operation in Lebanon, with Marine combat units gone, that has renewed criticism in Congress of the Administration's policy.

''You see that surf, I'm going in it. We did our job, I'll put it that way.

An article about Coleco Industries in the Business People column Friday incorrectly reported the time when Charles Winterble left a former employer, Commodore International. He left 18 months ago, and his departure was unrelated to any recent resignations at Commodore.

In what some lawmakers describe as a challenge to Governor Cuomo's handling of the state budget, legislative leaders have agreed on a measure that would set the precise number of workers the Governor should hire at four major state agencies. The move is an outgrowth of a dispute in which legislators have accused Mr. Cuomo of reducing staff size at the four agencies below the levels that the lawmakers thought had been agreed on in last year's budget negotiations. The four agencies are the Office of Mental Health, the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the State University and the City University. Budget Amendment Planned The legislative leaders have agreed to an amendment to the current budget that would establish the staffing levels the Legislature believes should be in effect. In all four cases, the current staffing is below the levels the Legislature plans to write into the law.

The Senate is expected to act this week on one of the session's most hotly debated measures: a bill to set the rules under which the President may restrict exports to Communist or other countries, even allies in Western Europe. The legislation would extend the Export Administration Act, which expires Wednesday. It seeks to reconcile the economic interests of a nation inceasingly dependent on exports with the aims of foreign policy and national security. The issues have already provoked monumental battles between those who favor tougher rules, chiefly to keep ultrasensitive high technology out of the Soviet Union, and those who favor a relaxation to keep up the flow of exports and keep industrial competitors from taking markets away from the United States.

After more than four years as the chief deputies to Mayor Koch, Nathan Leventhal and Robert F. Wagner Jr. resigned recently - Mr. Leventhal to become president of Lincoln Center and Mr. Wagner to take a teaching fellowship at Harvard University. Both surpassed by two years the average stay for a deputy mayor in the Koch administration. Mr. Leventhal, as Deputy Mayor for Operations, oversaw the agencies that make up the bulk of local government. Mr. Wagner, as Deputy Mayor for Policy, was responsible for most planning issues and dealt with situations in which cooperation and conciliation were necessary. In an interview with Michael Goodwin of The New York Times, the two talked about City Hall, what they learned there, what they achieved, where they failed and some of what remains for their successors to focus on. This is some of what they said.

Withdrawal of the U.S. marines from Beirut was completed, 17 months after they were sent to Lebanon. The bunkers they had occupied around the airport were immediately taken over by Shiite Moslem militiamen and rebel Lebanese Army units. Soon after the last marine had left, two American warships fired on Syrian gun positions in the hills. The Italian and British contingents in the multinational force have also left, leaving only the 1,250-man French unit in Beirut. The French are apparently waiting for a United Nations force to replace it. (Page A1, Column 6.) Fighting worsened in Beirut between Moslem militiamen and Lebanese Army soldiers along the green line dividing Christian and Moslem parts of the capital. Residential neighborhoods on both sides of the boundary were shelled. (A6:1.)

A law barring merchants from charging extra for purchases made with credit cards is expiring Monday, opening the way for retailers to impose surcharges against the more than 55 million American households that use credit cards. But spokesmen for credit card companies predicted that few merchants would demand the payments because Congress is likely to approve a short extension of the ban within a few days. Dan Crippen, an aide to Howard H. Baker Jr., the Senate majority leader, said the Senate would probably schedule floor action this week on a measure that would extend the law, which expires at 12:01 A.M. Monday, through May 15. A similar bill, providing a six-month extension, passed the House last year.

Just as in the United States, leading computer companies in Britain are homing in on the booming microcomputer market. In the process, solid homegrown competitors, several of which hope to become high-volume international players, are confronting the American companies. The center of attention is the lucrative business segment for personal computers. Sinclair Research Ltd., a world leader in inexpensive home computers, is about to enter the fray with its first business computer, the unabashedly named Quantam Leap.

State legislatures across the country are moving vigorously to try to reduce the rising cost of health care. ''State efforts to control health-care costs were greater in 1983 than in any other recent year,'' according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. ''State legislatures enacted more than 300 pieces of health-care cost containment legislation'' last year, the report said, saying the legislatures were considering 400 other cost-control bills this year. The intense activity at the state level coincides with a hiatus in Federal efforts to control health care costs. Members of Congress and officials of the Reagan Administration said they regarded the issue as so volatile that they would not make any major changes in Federal law or regulations in this election year.

The New Jersey Generals opened their second season with a modest triumph today, not gaudy but promising. Donald Trump's revamped team defeated the Birmingham Stallions in a tidy way, and the score, 17-6, reflected only in part New Jersey's superiority against a team that had thoroughly beaten last year's Generals. The game was played before the largest crowd in the history of the United States Football League, 62,300 at Legion Field. But attendance around the league was generally down compared with last season's opening day. The average attendance for today's eight games was 34,229, compared with 38,988 for six openers last year.