What was going on when I was born?

An Educator's Tangled Books New York City Schools Chancellor Anthony J. Alvarado took a leave of absence last week to defend himself against charges that he had compromised his position by borrowing money from subordinates. The following day, when the City Department of Investigation released an interim report on what Mr. Alvarado himself called his ''personal financial morass,'' it was already clear that the Chancellor's defense would indeed be difficult. The unfolding tale of Mr. Alvarado's financial practices began last month when a school official was arrested for, among other things, firing a gun into a neighbor's apartment. A police search of the official's apartment turned up documents indicating that he had lent Mr. Alvarado thousands of dollars. The Chancellor said then that the loan was a personal matter; within a week, Mr. Alvarado disclosed more than $80,000 in loans, most from school employees who had worked for him when he was a district superintendent in East Harlem. He continued last week to maintain that he had never ''used public money for personal gain.''

STENGEL His Life and Times. By Robert W. Creamer. Illustrated. 349 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $16.95. IT is hard to believe that almost 25 years have passed since Casey Stengel managed the New York Yankees, almost 20 years since he managed the Mets. Stengel was 70 years old when the Yankees unceremoniously dumped him five days after the 1960 World Series, a Series New York lost by the narrowest of margins when Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski dramatically homered in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh and deciding game. Up to that fateful moment, Stengel had won 7 World Series and 10 American League pennants in 12 years as Yankee manager, a record that no one has surpassed.

''There is a life after Ralph.'' That was the sign raised high by Virginia fans today after the Cavaliers upset Indiana, 50-48, in the East Regional final at the Omni and reached the Final Four of the National Collegiate Athletic Association at Seattle next Saturday. The sign referred to Ralph Sampson, the 7-foot-4-inch former Virginia center now with the Houston Rockets, who played for the Cavaliers from 1979-83, when his team got to the Final Four only once, in 1981. There certainly is life in this team, which hasn't given up during four close tournament games and trailed Indiana by a point with a minute and a half to go.

The nation's philanthropies, which in the past have concentrated on domestic social and educational projects, are now beginning to devote significant time and money to seeking ways of slowing the arms race and reducing the threat of nuclear war. The Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and many smaller philanthropies are financing conferences on the consequences of nuclear conflict, promoting Soviet-American exchange programs and searching for ways to prevent crises. Ford Foundation grants support wide-ranging research into peace and security issues, including three university projects questioning the ethics of developing nuclear weapons. Fighting Nuclear Arms Race Many foundations contribute to nonprofit groups around the country that have organized to seek solutions to the nuclear arms race. Older organizations such as SANE and Physicians for Social Responsibility are now joined by newer organizations whose aim is to prevent nuclear war.

The Defense Ministry announced today that French troops in Beirut, the last unit of the multinational force, had been ordered to withdraw from the city by next Saturday. A statement by Defense Minister Charles Hernu said the 1,250 naval infantrymen and paramilitary policemen would be relieved ''by elements designated by the Lebanese authorities.'' He gave no indication of what forces those might be. The statement did not refer to the Lebanese Government as the sole party responsible for taking over the French positions in the Lebanese capital. Military sources here said this was because French officials in Beirut had had conversations with the various Lebanese factions about avoiding fighting for the areas now patrolled by French soldiers.

While condominium communities have increased in favor in many Nassau County communities, the villages that make up the area known as the Five Towns on the South Shore have only recently accepted them. Last year, the village of North Woodmere approved a plan for the construction of Vanderbilt Park, a 35-residence condominium community on a three-acre parcel at Rosedale and Heatherfield Roads.

RICHARD BERK, a press aide for Gary Hart, was not wearing a ''Hart for President'' campaign button last Monday during an appearance by the Colorado Senator's wife, Lee, at the College of New Rochelle. ''I'm so new in this campaign that I don't have my own button,'' said Mr. Berk of Hastings-on-Hudson. ''You have to work your way up before you get your own button.'' There were few formal campaign trappings during Mrs. Hart's morning visit, which included trips to two centers for the elderly in Mount Vernon. County residents active in the Hart campaign say everything has happened so fast that there has been little time to secure even campaign literature.

Edwin Meese 3d, the Presidential counselor, said today that the only thing he would do differently, given the opportunity, would be to list a $15,000 interest- free loan on his financial disclosure forms. In an interview in his White House office, Mr. Meese said ''it never even occurred to me'' that it could create an appearance of impropriety for his wife to accept the $15,000 loan from Edwin Thomas in 1981. During that year Mr. Thomas worked as Mr. Meese's assistant in the White House and later received another Federal appointment. Mr. Thomas's wife and son also received Federal jobs. Trouble 'Not Created by Me' Mr. Meese said his repeated omission of the loan on his disclosure forms was ''the only thing I can think of'' that he would change. Asked if there were other ways in which he might have avoided the questions that have arisen about his finances and political dealings, Mr. Meese replied: ''The trouble is not created by me. It's created by the people who are distorting this.'' He added that he was prepared to fight ''as long as it takes'' to win Senate confirmation of his nomination to be Attorney General.

WASHINGTON A FTER a rapid-fire succession of primaries and caucuses, the campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination has shifted to a less hectic but potentially decisive phase. In the coming weeks, the political calendar provides the three remaining candidates with more running space between the major contests but less margin for error. Through last Tuesday's Illinois primary, the campaign had been largely a contest for publicity, a big factor in Gary Hart's sudden emergence as a leading contender for the nomination. In this new phase, however, the accumulation of delegates will be no less important than press attention to the horse race.

The president of the New York City Board of Education announced yesterday that the board would meet today to consider suspending Schools Chancellor Anthony J. Alvarado. The president, James F. Regan, also said that the board would consider formal charges against Mr. Alvarado, who has acknowledged borrowing money from subordinates and engaging in financial transactions that have been called into question. The suspension and the charges - that he violated bylaws and regulations governing ethical standards - would be the first steps toward a trial-like hearing and possible dismissal of the Chancellor. Until yesterday, the board had spoken only about an informal procedure that would have given Mr. Alvarado an opportunity to respond to the allegations against him. The board had also never broached - publicly, at least - the idea of a suspension.

The Kentucky Wildcats, pushed by the force of their home-court crowd and the challenge of a surprising Illinois team, protected a slim lead in the final minutes and prevailed by 54- 51 today to win the Mideast Regional and a spot in the Final Four. In the semifinals next Saturday at Seattle, the Wildcats (29-4) will meet the winner of the West Regional championship game Sunday between Georgetown and Dayton. When both nets were cut as nearly all of the crowd of 23,525 celebrated at Rupp Arena, the home of the Wildcats, one of the nets hung round the neck of Dicky Beal, the guard who had emerged at the end of his college career to lead Kentucky to its first trip to the Final Four in six years. Beal, the 5-foot-11-inch senior who has had three knee operations, was named the outstanding player of the regional tournament. He had 9 points, 6 assists and 2 steals. Although Beal did commit five turnovers, including two at important times in the final four minutes, he has been the difference for a team that had slumped, by Kentucky standards, before he became a starter late in the season.

T he original production of Arthur Miller's ''Death of a Salesman'' opened Feb. 10, 1949, at the Morosco Theater to rapturous applause. The playwright who, up to then, had experienced one Broadway failure and one sturdy success, was 33, suddenly rich, famous, important and awash in controversy. Dispraise followed hard on approval. If the first wave of reviews almost unanimously welcomed ''Salesman'' as a major work of the theater, possibly a modern American masterpiece, the second tier of critics from the intellectual journals were at times savagely negative. At best, that audience had seen a sentimental melodrama, perpetrated by a closet Marxist with a crippled sense of language. Thirty-five years later, as a major new revival reaches Broadway, it is still possible to roil up debate over the play's merits. Some scholars and critics argue passionately that the play is a modern tragedy; others hold that it fails as tragedy when examined in the light of classical Aristotelian dictates. Perhaps more to the theatrical point is the view shared by the play's many admirers, who feel that such arguments tend to obscure the essential value of ''Salesman'' as a deeply moving drama.