What was going on when I was born?

With a night of rest to refresh him, Boris Becker returned to Centre Court today to continue the pursuit of a championship his opponents have said he cannot win. And once again the 17-year-old West German was like rolling thunder, overpowering Anders Jarryd in the completion of their semifinal match and becoming the youngest player to reach the men's final at Wimbledon. Becker defeated Jarryd, seeded fifth, 2-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3, and will face Kevin Curren in the final Sunday. The match was suspended Friday because of rain and darkness with the score at 1-1 in the third set. The additional time to contemplate what he is on the verge of accomplishing did not appear to affect Becker.

A covered wagon crossing an empty desert in the mid-day sun. A man on horseback at full gallop across a wide and lonely prairie with nothing but space and sky as far as the eye can see. These are scenes so ingrained in the American psyche that they form a part of our national self-image. They come from the westerns we all grew up with, but, according to the writer and director Lawrence Kasdan, they are as exotic to the young moviegoers of today as the landscape of the moon. Now, in his new film ''Silverado,'' which opens Wednes-day at the Ziegfeld, Mr. Kasdan hopes to introduce the western to an audience that has hardly ever seen it, and pique the nostalgia of those who may have forgotten its what they have been missing.

A growing number of colleges and universities in the Northeast are embarking on projects to bolster the economic health of their communities. From opening day-care centers to setting up real-estate ventures in depressed neighborhoods, public and private colleges are undertaking the projects independently, as collaborators with state governments or as partners in corporations. Columbia University, for example, which has had problems finding ample housing for its students in the Morningside Heights area, has joined the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in planning a mixed housing project on Amsterdam Avenue between 111th and 112th Streets to accommodate the elderly as well as students. Yale University in New Haven is one of the founders of a corporation that is building an 80-acre industrial park on the border of an impoverished neighborhood. Day-Care Center - Trinity College in Hartford plans to open a day-care center that city residents will be able to use. Drew University in Madison, N.J., gave $300 this year to the town's Police Department to buy bulletproof vests.

Oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed again today to agree on measures to bolster world oil prices, despite a warning by Mexico that it might cut its oil prices next week. It would be Mexico's second price cut in a month in response to declining demand for its oil. Analysts say a price cut by Mexico, which is not an OPEC member, would almost certainly lead to a renewed decline in world oil prices, rendering the cartel's price structure increasingly unrealistic and fragile. After two days of apparently fruitless talks here, Indonesia's Oil Minister, Subroto, who is presiding over the meeting, told reporters he had asked ministers to return on Sunday to suggest ''immediate steps'' to defend the cartel's price structure and its share of the world market.

JUST three years ago, there were a handful of bed and breakfast accommodations in Connecticut. Now, more than 200 Connecticut homeowners make rooms available to paying guests, said Barbara Beeching, a spokesman for the State Division of Tourism. Bed and breakfasts, as they are called by their operators, are found in mansions, old farmhouses, and homes of every description. Homeowners rent out spare bedrooms and offer their guests breakfast, which can range from a croissant and a cup of coffee to a meal of several courses.

WHEN H. Roy Heath, a lumber-store owner, won a 1910 Chamber of Commerce contest with the slogan ''Trenton Makes, the World Takes,'' the words soon were emblazoned on the side of the Trenton-Morrisville (Pa.) Bridge. At the time, they rang true, for Trenton was then one of the nation's largest centers of steel and pottery manufacturing. However, the city, despite being the seat of the state government, declined over the years and, by the late 1950's, many of its major factories were closed or had moved. The state government, with 17,000 workers, had become Trenton's largest employer, and the slogan had become a joke.

The greater part of a former country-club golf course in the Town of Kent in Putnam County is being transformed into a residential development with 216 country-style town houses. ''We're looking to attact empty-nesters and yuppies,'' said Merv Blank of Merv Blank Enterprises, a Mount Kisco, N.Y., developer.

Battery Park City, until now the site only of rental apartment buildings and commercial structures, will soon have its first condominium high-rise. The new residential building, named Hudson Tower by its developers, the Zeckendorf Company and the World-Wide Holdings Corporation, is situated in a cul-de-sac on the esplanade overlooking the Hudson River at 350 Albany Street in the 92-acre landfill site.

Retailing Gloom As retailers prepare for their make-or-break second-half season, the best they can expect is for sales to match the somewhat dismal results of this year's first half, says Joseph H. Ellis, vice president of investment research at Goldman, Sachs & Company. ''General merchandise sales should equal or perhaps slightly exceed the 4 to 5 percent gains reported for the first half, but actually the situation is much worse than most people realize,'' said Mr. Ellis, a retail industry specialist. One reason for his gloomy assessment, he says, is that from the recession's end in late 1982 until last year, consumers were on a buying binge that resulted in a huge pile-up of installment debt. Another, he says, is inflation's decline, which makes it hard for retailers to expand their margins in anticipation of higher inventory replacement costs. It also means consumers are no longer rushing to beat inflation by speeding up their purchases. And, he said, ''wages are still rising at a slower pace than the inflation rate, and this, too, affects retail sales.'' Paper Tigers? Stocks of paper companies are among the star market performers these days, and this puzzles H. C. Bowen Smith, who monitors the industry for Salomon Brothers.

Jerome Barczak thought he was in luck. The 52-year-old engineer's flight from Athens to New York had been canceled, but Trans World Airlines said that if he hurried he could catch Flight 847 to Rome, with a connection to New York. T.W.A. even delayed Flight 847 for him, whisking him in a car to the taxiing jet, where he settled into the last available seat. But Mr. Barczak and the other 142 passengers did not turn out to be lucky. Within 20 minutes after the Boeing 727 lifted off they found themselves caught in a terrifying hijacking that was to carry them on a zigzagging three-day odyssey from Beirut to Algiers to Beirut to Algiers and back to Beirut, where 39 Americans were held hostage for two more weeks.

John Livanos owns six other restaurants that bear his name in Queens, Brooklyn and Nassau County, but none of them is like the one he opened recently in White Plains and calls his first Art Deco restaurant. It also is like nothing else in White Plains.

THE FINANCIAL crisis confronting Suffolk County government ended abruptly when the Long Island Lighting Company recently paid $130.7 million in overdue taxes on the Shoreham nuclear power plant. Now county officials are trying to decide what to do with the county's share of the money, estimated at $92 million. Although lowering taxes or giving tax refunds figure prominently in most plans, the amount and the manner remain in question. In addition, the power struggle between County Executive Peter F. Cohalan and the County Legislature over the Shoreham nuclear plant could translate into disagreement over how to spend the Lilco money. Mr. Cohalan took the initiative last month by proposing to buy or protect through other measures 5,979 acres of scenic and environmentally sensitive open land in six Suffolk towns. The plan would cost an estimated $10 million, he said, which would come from the sale of bonds. Most of the money would be spent for the purchase of about 1,672 acres he said were ''in imminent danger of development.''