What was going on when I was born?

THREE years ago Ben Heller, a wealthy New York art dealer, paid $265,000 for about two and a half acres of prime undeveloped shorefront property in East Hampton. The site offered a magnificent view of Georgica Pond, and Mr. Heller and his wife, part-time residents of the area for 30 years, planned to build a new vacation home overlooking the water. Two of their prospective neighbors, Raymond and Nicole Bigar, were casual friends of the Hellers. The two couples had known each other for 25 years, and their children had grown up together. But when the Bigars realized that Mr. Heller planned to build a large house as soon as possible on the adjoining parcel, they grew alarmed. They and some other neighbors expressed concern that any additional development near Georgica might harm the pond's relatively pristine water and disturb the area's open-space character.

The Knicks, who thrived by the jump shot in the first half, lost to the Milwaukee Bucks last night when the jumper failed them in the second half, particularly in the final 2 minutes. In losing, 111-106, at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks failed to protect a 104-98 lead from Sidney Moncrief and his teammates. While the Knicks were missing from the outside, the Bucks scored 12 straight points, 4 by Moncrief, who had 12 in the final period and 33 in the game as he shot 11 for 15. It was the Knicks' fourth loss in five games this season to the Central Division pacesetters.

Senior Reagan Administration officials said today that remarks by the new Soviet leader, Konstantin U. Chernenko, seemed to reflect increased interest in exploring President Reagan's call for a more constructive dialogue. The officials said a high-level review was under way on whether the United States should take any new initiatives toward Moscow in the near future. Arthur A. Hartman, the Ambassador to the Soviet Union, was recalled for the discussions, and Mr. Chernenko's comments, calling for ''real actions'' by Washington instead of just words, ''obviously will be taken account of,'' one official said. Mr. Chernenko's nationally televised address Friday was the most substantive and extensive he has made since he took power as the General Secretary of the Communist Party last month upon the death of Yuri V. Andropov. The address was studied carefully by policy makers and intelligence analysts on Friday and this morning.

T HE GARF was making a house call. It was midafternoon one day in late February and Howard Garfinkel, known generally as The Garf - age 54, black thinning hair combed flat on his head in the manner of a 1940's matinee idol, wearing glasses and blue sport jacket and red tie but no coat on this wintry day - had been picked up in a car by a companion from Garfinkel's apartment in Manhattan and they drove to a private school in Brooklyn. Garfinkel had been called on the telephone by the basketball coach of the visiting team and asked to take a look at one of his players, a 6-foot-6-inch senior who, the coach believed, had big- time basketball potential. This was the the team's last game of the season.

At the top of the stretch, it was clear that the spell was broken, that the undefeated and untested sensation named Devil's Bag had been tested and had failed. An eighth of a mile later, Time for a Change held off Dr. Carter to win the $365,000 Flamingo Stakes by a neck, with a 46-1 shot named Rexson's Hope passing Devil's Bag for third place, six lengths behind the leaders. Devil's Bag, the 3-10 favorite and a strong early favorite for the Triple Crown races this spring, had come up empty at the top of the stretch and finished fourth in the field of eight 3-year-olds, seven lengths behind the winner. Time for a Change, who paid $16.60 for $2 to win and covered the mile and an eighth in 1:47 under Jerry Bailey, turned in an excellent performance, as did Dr. Carter, who may have been best but was blocked on the backstretch. But their achievements were overshadowed by Devil's Bag's shocking performance, one that his handlers could not explain.

Hoping to appeal to buyers looking for the space of the single- family house along with the convenience of condominium communities, a Westport, Conn., developer has broken ground for an 81-residence project in that town's Carriage Hill section. It will have condominium units ranging in size from 1,780 to 2,550 square feet.

When the American Can Company, one of the nation's largest producers of metal containers, left Manhattan in 1970, it moved into new headquarters built to its specifications in Greenwich, Conn. Now the 181-acre complex is up for sale for $192 million.

RELIGION IN THE SECULAR CITY Toward a Postmodern Theology. By Harvey Cox. 304 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $16.95. IN ''Religion in the Secular City,'' Harvey Cox, a professor of theology at Harvard Divinity School, tolls the death knell for liberal theology. That is ironic since, 19 years ago, he established his considerable reputation with the publication of his best seller, ''The Secular City.'' In that earlier book, he celebrated the modern urban secular world as a vehicle of grace. In his vision, the secular world was a natural outgrowth of the Christian doctrine of creation, not the result of sin, evil or a curse on mankind.

After more than two years of negotiating with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and local community groups, a Long Island developer has received approval for a 13-story office project on West 55th Street that will incorporate two landmark buildings on 54th Street informally known as the Rockefeller town houses. The developer, Feldman Brothers of Lake Success, L.I., recently started construction work on the 92,250-square-foot office project at 20 West 55th Street, which will include conversion of the town houses at 13 and 15 West 54th Street to office use.

WHEN a homeowner deals with a remodeling contractor, a dispute between the parties can leave thousands of dollars worth of construction work unusable until it is resolved. The problem may be seepage, for example - a new basement may fill with water after the first rainstorm, or new skylights may leak. Expensive tiles may crack or ducts may have been incorrectly installed. Because a fast solution is necessary to finish the job according to plan and make the property usable, litigation is rarely the answer. The courts are so clogged, in fact, that lawyers complain it can take two years or more to get a decision - which then can be further delayed by appeal.

In the predawn darkness of Feb. 21, as a pilot and two other men loaded scores of heavy wood crates into a private jet in a remote area of Kennedy International Airport, a car carrying armed customs agents roared out onto the airfield and drew up at the plane. There was a tense confrontation, but no violence. The customs men, breaking open crates, found a huge cache of weapons, ammunition and paramilitary and electronics gear, including what one agent called some ''James Bond stuff.'' The shipment, which was to be sold for about $1 million, was to have been flown illegally to Warsaw and sold to Polish Government officials, customs officials say. Instead, the arsenal was seized in an episode that has led to the arrest of two New York businessmen and turned into a deepening mystery of international gun-running and undercover detective work with enough twists and intrigue for a best-selling spy novel.

''NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR is going to be a super, super year for builders and home buyers,'' said Saul Muchnick, a Long Island builder of single-family houses. ''But 1985 is imponderable. There is so much uncertainty about the Federal deficits and the 1985 economy, I am rushing to get two new jobs going before next year.'' Driven by increasing pessimism about future mortgage-interest rates and by pent-up demand for housing created by the recent recession, builders and buyers alike are rushing to take advantage of the current availability of credit. Consequently, builders are creating a wide selection of new housing - single-family houses, condominiums and cooperatives - nationally and in the metropolitan area, but buyers may still find themselves competing for a supply not large enough to satisfy them all. And after ordering a new home, many buyers may have to wait longer than usual for delivery - perhaps seven or eight months, rather than the usual four to six - as builders scramble to catch up with the spurt in demand that is straining resources of labor and materials.