What was going on when I was born?

In Parkersburg, W.Va., a million pounds of a Government-listed carcinogen are released into the air each year from a chemical plant owned by the Borg-Warner Corporation. The chemical is acrylonitrile, also called vinyl cyanide. In its liquid state, the chemical is clear and flammable. It is used to make hard plastics for computer terminals, telephone receivers and other products. There are no Federal or West Virginia standards that control emissions of acrylonitrile, and Borg-Warner says the Parkersburg emissions are safe. If the plant were in Philadelphia, however, such emissions would be double the safe limit established there. And in New York State they would be 50 percent above the limit.

Interest rates, which have been trending downward for some months, are likely to fall even further in the wake of Friday's vote by the Federal Reserve's board of governors to lower the discount rate by half a point, to 7 1/2 percent, credit market analysts say. That vote, taken against what the Fed called a ''background of relatively unchanged output for some time in the industrial sector of the economy,'' has removed much of the drama that had surrounded tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's senior policy making body. Expectations that a cut in the discount rate was coming had been building for weeks, pushing up bond prices. The discount rate is the rate at which the central bank lends money to financial institutions.

In significant and increasing numbers, blacks have been moving from the older central cities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to the suburban areas. Their motivations, they say, have been the same ones that prompted whites to move out decades before: the desire to own a home, to obtain a better education for their children and to raise a family in a safer setting. For the most part, black families said in a series of interviews, they have found the way of life they were seeking. But they also talked of a life that is sometimes lonely and troubled. Many said they had uneasy relationships with their white neighbors, causing strains that can sometimes lead to conflict. And they said they were concerned about the impact on their children of growing up in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Despite the production of several acclaimed dramas, Broadway is concluding its worst economic season in a decade, as indicated by both statistics and emotional reaction in the industry. What remains uncertain, and hotly debated in theater circles, is whether the slump is part of Broadway's cyclical nature or the harbinger of a long-term decline. Attendance and theater occupancy -known in the trade as ''playing weeks'' - are at their lowest ebb since the mid-1970's, according to statistics compiled by the League of American Theaters and Producers. The 33 new shows that will have opened by May 31, the official end of the season, represent the fewest in any season this century, league figures show. Box-office income - which generally rises even when other measures of Broadway activity decline - is lagging $9 million behind last season's level of $227 million, according to league statistics. The seasonal gross is likely to be the third highest in Broadway history, but it marks only the second time since the 1972-73 season that income has not gone up from the previous theater year.

MIKE ROGERS was there. Blaine Stoughton, too. But Mark Howe can't remember everyone in that photograph now, some five years later. They were playing for the Hartford Whalers then, all in their mid-to-late 20's, and all were impressed to see and touch the Stanley Cup. It was a promotional tour, Howe remembers, the National Hockey League's way of showing the fans in Hartford what the cup looked like, how the names like Beliveau and Richard are repeatedly etched in silver, how its patina glimmers in even the dimmest light. The public's look had been at arm's length, the cup cordoned off, kept within admiration's range. But in the Whaler dressing room, where the cup has never been carried in triumphant times, the response was nearly and properly chaotic. The players were allowed to embrace it, smudge it, look inside where the champagne is poured annually, feel its names. . .and imagine. ''Someone put it down for a second,'' Howe recalled the other day, while he and the Philadelphia Flyers prepared to meet the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup final that begins tomorrow night at the Spectrum. ''Then, all of a sudden, about 10 of us jumped behind it, someone grabbed a camera, and there we all were, crowded around it. ''We were in something like 19th place then, as usual. And we figured, what the heck, this is probably the closest we'll get to the cup for a while.''

John Schander kicked at the ashes at his feet, before him the charred shell of his retirement home. His broad shoulders shook, and he brought his hands up to his mouth and sobbed openly and bitterly. It was his first view of his home since Friday afternoon when Mr. Schander, who retired here 26 months ago from Milford, Conn., fled with his wife and thousands of other Palm Coast residents in the path of a wildfire that sent columns of flames racing through scrub brush and trees in 90 minutes of terror and pandemonium. ''This,'' he murmured after he regained his composure this morning, ''was our dream house.''

THE Edmonton Oilers were milling around in one of the hockey episodes in which grown men attempt to squeeze into the smallest possible space. The Oilers and the Chicago Black Hawks were not fighting, but they were not friendly either. Some of them were grabbing, and some were raising their sticks, and most of them were just doing a lot of loud and angry talking. But one of the Oilers did not seem to know where to go. He glided along the fringe of the confrontation, not saying anything, not grabbing anyone. The blade of Jari Kurri's stick was where it belonged, where it has proved most effective - along the ice. For a rare moment during these Stanley Cup playoffs, Kurri seemed lost.

''I have concluded that New York State should adopt a comprehensive and responsible strategy to demonstrate the abhorrence of our residents to the pernicious system of apartheid.'' - Governor Cuomo. [A1:4.]

MONDAY, MAY 20, 1985 International Israel may free 1,000 Palestinians and other prisoners today in return for three Israeli soldiers captured during the Lebanon conflict, diplomatic sources said. Some of the exchanges are to take place in Geneva and on the Israeli-Syrian border. Palestinians are also to be released into the occupied West Bank. Israel is expected to release two men serving life imprisonments for terrorism. [Page A1, Column 3.] Israel adopted 20 economic measures during a 12-hour Cabinet session to deal with the country's deteriorating economy. The measures, which for the most part involve tax increases rather than reductions in the $23 billion national budget, include a $300 tax on foreign travel and restrictions on trips abroad by Cabinet members. [A7:1-4.]

A high-level Government official sat in his office last Friday and painted a convincing scenario in which Argentina would once again recover from a financial crisis. ''It is at a very critical point,'' he said. ''But, believe me, we want nothing more than to settle everything, and so we are going to.'' Late that night, the Government tried to settle - at least temporarily - one of the flashpoints of the latest crisis when it announced that it had frozen all dollar accounts for 120 days. Other foreign currency accounts were also frozen. The freezing of assets was an attempt to end a flood of bank withdrawals that began about 10 days ago when the Government closed a large bank on the verge of failure, the eighth private bank to be shut in two months.

The Yankees, who had won six games in a row playing the kind of baseball that has become Billy Martin's trademark, had little to offer today in support of Ed Whitson, their struggling right-hander. Whitson pitched with encouraging effectiveness for six innings, but a series of missed opportunities brought an end to the Yankee streak as the California Angels, on two-run homers by Brian Downing and Ruppert Jones, scored a 4-1 victory at Anaheim Stadium. Whitson was forced to leave when he developed a small blister on the index finger of his right hand. At the time the Yankees were losing, 2-1. Rich Bordi relieved and allowed Jones's homer in the eighth.

With razor blades and Scotch tape, 88 black and white keys and a new computer, Rudy Martin makes music - a music that tickles the ivories and sets toes wagging and fingers snapping. In his cluttered balcony workshop, Mr. Martin's long fingers stroked the keys, while between each chord his right foot pumped a long steel rod that set off a clacking and poofing from a wondrous ancient contraption of air tubes and levers and spinning wheels that spat out a stream of paper spattered with punctures. ''It's slow,'' Mr. Martin explained, ''because the machine can only go so fast. And it's a slow process anyway.'' Mr. Martin arranges music for player pianos, those instruments that magically play themselves when fed a roll of paper dotted with holes. He does this for QRS Music Rolls Inc., the oldest and one of the last makers of rolls for player pianos in the country.