What was going on when I was born?

Consumers and the Market Traditionally, strong stock markets create the psychological climate for increased consumer borrowing and spending - two of the nation's most powerful economic engines. But the 12-month market advance between mid-1982 and mid-1983 was so strong that it is believed to have had a negative influence on consumers' current spending behavior. Why? Jack W. Lavery, chief economist at Merrill Lynch & Company, says that while the strong advance may have added roughly $530 billion to the financial net worth of the nation's households before the bull market ended in the middle of 1983, it also caused consumers to shoot their spending and borrowing bolts by last summer. They borrowed so heavily, and spent that borrowed money with such abandon - on new homes, autos, appliances and other big- ticket items - that they may now have temporarily exhausted their resources. At any rate, consumer spending has been growing at about half the pace of last year's second quarter.

THE ties between Exxon and Morgan Stanley, premier names in oil and investment banking, date back at least half a century. For decades, whenever Exxon turned to Wall Street to issue new stocks or bonds, Morgan Stanley was by its side, usually as the lead underwriter for the money-raising effort under way. Even today, the two companies occupy the same gleaming skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. But when Exxon set its financing for 1983 - a modest $77.7 million in tax-exempt bonds - it did not turn to its traditional investment banker. The oil giant opted, instead, for E. F. Hutton and its ''lower floaters,'' a new kind of long-term bond with a floating interest rate. Explained W. Allen Harrison, Exxon's assistant treasurer: ''Morgan Stanley does not have a product here.''

WHEN the state's Pinelands Commission was created under the 1979 Pinelands Protection Act, builders, developers and local officials protested that growth in South Jersey would be stifled. Individually and in organizations, they sought to overturn the law. When those efforts failed, many said they would continue to resist its regulations. In the last three years, the commission has, indeed, rejected or cut back development plans that predated adoption of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan, but it has also mandated growth - at least in parts of three Atlantic County townships - that is higher than the townships sought under their own master plans. (The Comprehensive Management Plan divides the 1.1 million acres of the pinelands into two basic sections: An inner, ecologically fragile Preservation Area, in which development is all but prohibited, and a larger Protection Area, which is further divided into sections designated for such things as agriculture, forests, rural development and regional growth.)

CHILDHOOD By Nathalie Sarraute. Translated by Barbara Wright in consultation with the author. 246 pp. New York: George Braziller. $14.95. AMONG the great women of French letters still among us, including Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras and Marguerite Yourcenar, Nathalie Sarraute has devoted herself the most single-mindedly to refining and extending the novel as an instrument of exploration. Since the appearance in 1939 of her first book of prose pieces, ''Tropisms,'' Mme. Sarraute has published eight novels, the earliest of them with a glowing preface by Sartre. A short book of literary essays, ''The Age of Suspicion'' (1956), and a number of radio and stage plays have not distracted her from her steady purpose to seek out the most delicate of impressions that lie in the unnamed corners of consciousness. Written just as Mme. Sarraute entered her 80's, ''Childhood'' recounts her early years up to the eve of World War I (she was born in 1900) in a style closely tied to that of her novels. She has constructed it more scenically than narratively out of 71 short vignettes. They capture finely shaded details of place and person as well as the feelings of a precocious child torn between divorced parents and their two homes. In these beautifully paced pages the reader

The United States has turned away from nuclear power so decisively that it has forsaken its global dominance of the technology, according to experts in this country and abroad. The abandonment of the technology, made incrementally by the decisions of scores of independent utilities but just as completely as if Congress had written it into law, could have serious consequences if economic and political circumstances in the 1990's prompt a resurgence in orders for new nuclear plants, industry experts say. Experts differ on the broad issue of whether nuclear energy represents a technology important to the world's future, as computers or gene-splicing are believed to be, or a dead end. While scores of plants have fallen by the wayside, some analysts say that the need for electric energy is going to grow rapidly in coming years and that the cost of fossil fuels to make the power will rise, trends that would put the United States at a disadvantage. And if it sought to return to nuclear power by the middle of the next decade, proponents and opponents of reactors agree, the United States, the pioneer in the field, would probably have to import the designs and components from countries with continuing experience in the field, such as France or Japan.

The French, the only peacekeeping contingent left ashore, also pulled out virtually all of their troops. Despite Mr. Reagan's insistence that the United States was not abandoning Lebanon, the Lebanese were essentially on their own with little hope of finding a political solution to the interfactional fighting that was tearing the country apart. The Americans suffered 264 deaths and the French 89 in their effort to stabilize the Government and promote the withdrawal of foreign forces. But Syrian and Israeli troops continued to occupy most of the country, and the immediate problem for the Government was how to prevent the increasingly subdivided factions from killing each other, and a lot of civilian bystanders.

IF the ''stars of tomorrow'' have finally arrived, it is high time. The Mets have finished last or next to last for seven straight years, and even they concede that they are running out of promises. Tom Seaver, the symbol of their better past, is gone. Dave Kingman, their home-run leader only two years ago, is gone. Neil Allen, once their best relief pitcher, is gone. Bob Bailor, their best all- round player, is gone. And so are the two men who labored as their manager last season, George Bamberger and Frank Howard, although Howard remains as coach.

A rise in the number of elderly people in the New York metropolitan area is resulting in the creation of more subsidized rental apartments for them in many communities. Dozens of redundant schools, mills and vacant sites close to shopping and services are being set aside for the purpose. Built with the aid of either state, Federal or municipal funds, some are being managed by a local housing authority, others by a nonprofit sponsors such as an consortion of churches. Behind this activity, however, still lies the difficulty that most older people on limited incomes face in trying to get such apartments. Horror stories abound about years-long waiting lists and the unrealistic qualifying criteria for entry.

Former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. asserts that in 1982, the White House wrecked ''a breakthrough'' agreement for a simultaneous withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization, Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon. Mr. Haig says in his memoirs that the agreement was worked out in early July 1982 but fell through when the White House prematurely made ''an ill-conceived announcement'' that it was prepared to commit United States troops to a multinational force there. ''All that we had labored so hard to grasp, and had come so close to grasping, slipped away, with consequences not yet wholly revealed,'' Mr. Haig says in the memoirs, ''Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Policy.'' Time magazine made public its concluding installment of the memoirs today. They deal with the Middle East, the Falkland Islands crisis, the Polish crisis, and Mr. Haig's resignation being accepted by President Reagan.

SAN SALVADOR O NCE again, Salvadorans trudged for miles over the country's dusty roads and stood bravely in line to vote last week. Despite the slow count, it was almost immediately apparent that none of the eight Presidential candidates would receive the needed majority. The electorate was faced with a straight choice between two sharply opposing political attitudes represented by Jose Napoleon Duarte, the Christian Democratic leader, and Roberto d'Aubuisson, head of the far right Nationalist Republican Alliance. Some United States officials acknowledge that the 1982 elections for a Constituent Assembly fell far short of producing significant improvement in the situation here. ''What has changed since the last time,'' one said, ''is that we're more involved, the army is in worse shape, and the guerrillas have a much greater presence.'' The latest elections have produced a lot of questions for Salvadorans to ponder as they prepare for a runoff, set tentatively for May 6, between Mr. Duarte, who led with about 40 percent of the vote, and Mr. d'Aubuisson, who had about 31 percent.

Mike Bossy and Billy Smith hugged each other at the final buzzer tonight as the Islanders skated off with first place in the Patrick Division, edging the Washington Capitals in a tense, tight game, 3-1. The Islanders won their division title for the fifth time in the last nine seasons and thus set up another playoff confrontation with the Rangers. The New York teams will face each other in the first game of the three-of- five-game, opening-round series next Wednesday night at Nassau Coliseum. For Bossy, who only a few weeks ago gave up hope of reaching 50 goals this season, there was instead a new accomplishment: He became the first player in National Hockey League history to post seven such seasons, and his have come consecutively. He surpassed 50 tonight with a pair of goals, including his 51st into an empty net that sealed the victory.

The State Legislature passed a new budget today that increases spending by more than $2 billion in a broad range of areas, including education, prisons and housing for the homeless. Buoyed by an improving economy, the Legislature approved the largest increase in education aid ever and a record appropriation for projects requested by legislators for their districts. The Assembly completed passage this afternoon of the series of bills making up the $35.6 billion budget. The Senate finished its work on the budget shortly after midnight Friday. The Assembly session was punctuated by debates on tax cuts and financing for the Westway highway project. Scores of amendments were proposed and defeated one after another,