What was going on when I was born?

When Halley's comet vanishes next spring to begin another 76-year loop around the universe, so will demand for Halley's dolls, Halley's comet pills and Halley's glow-in-the-dark clothing. Many of the comet entrepreneurs, however, are vowing not to be left in the comet's celestial wake. Even before the comet has arrived, they are making plans to stay in business after it is gone. Among the variety of ventures that have arisen to promote the reappearance of the famous comet, one company has tapped a special market that it hopes will continue to buy from it when the comet has disappeared. And another foresees turning its new contacts into an international marketing business.

When Edwin J. Gray, the embattled chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, steps up to the podium of the savings industry's annual convention in Dallas on Tuesday morning he will be talking to friend and foe alike. In almost two and a half years as the top regulator of the nation's savings and loan associations he has irked some by imposing strict regulations on an already beleaguered industry while endearing himself to others for his determination to help the thrift institutions remain independent. The controversy over Mr. Gray's job performance has reached such a point, in fact, that a major topic of conversation at informal gatherings this week at the annual convention of the United States League of Savings Institutions is likely to be whether he will be forced out of his job. Recently, the 59-year-old bank board chairman has been the subject of an intense, but so far unsuccessful, push by Donald T. Regan, the White House chief of staff, to get him out of the post. According to close aides of Mr. Gray, he had planned to resign by the end of the year. Now, they say, in reaction to the reports that he was being forced out, he has shelved those plans and may stay on for several months more.

The crisis in tin trading that started on Oct. 24 is threatening the future of the 108-year-old London Metal Exchange, the world's premier metals market. ''The situation is critical now,'' said David Williamson, director of metals research for Shearson Lehman Brothers Ltd., one of the 28 dealing members on the exchange. ''This could destroy the L.M.E.'' The exchange handles trades in copper, aluminum, lead, nickel, silver, zinc and tin. While most of the actual trading in these metals is done off the exchange, the prices determined by the exchange have traditionally been used to set price standards covering a whole range of commercial transactions between industrial producers and consumers of these metals.

As it entered the fourth quarter, the economy managed to hold the ground it gained in September, the National Association of Purchasing Management said in a report prepared for release today. In its latest survey, the trade association said production levels remained unchanged in October and new orders, the source of future production, eased only slightly. Vendor deliveries continued at virtually the same pace; employment picked up but was still at a low level, and inventories declined as manufacturers began making seasonal adjustments. The purchasing managers' composite index of indicators, a broad measure adjusted for seasonal variation, rose to 51.7 percent, up from 51 percent in September. October was the second consecutive month that the index surpassed the 50 percent mark, having stayed at lower levels for a seven-month run. A reading below 50 percent signals that the economy is contracting; a reading above 50 percent indicates that it is expanding.

International Early elections in the Philippines will be held, President Ferdinand E. Marcos announced. He said that he intended to call for a presidential election in January to settle what he called a ''silly claim'' that his Government is inept. [Page A1, Col.6.] A covert plan aimed at weakening the regime of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has been approved by President Reagan, according to Congressional sources and Administration officials. [A1:4.]

A ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that went into effect on Friday has prompted widespread revolt among pipeline companies. Instead of making gas transport services available for greater volumes of less expensive, privately contracted gas, most pipeline companies have acted to narrow the amount of private gas they had been carrying. ''The present circumstances are terribly confusing,'' said Stanford Wallace, a spokesman for the Panhandle Eastern Corporation, in Houston. He said several pipeline companies are seeking further clarifications and new hearings and may mount court challenges to the energy commission's natural gas orders.

Months before Lee A. Iacocca became involved in the campaign to restore the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Richard Rovsek, a Connecticut marketing executive, hit upon the idea that there ought to be one. ''The concept,'' Mr. Rovsek recalled recently, ''really came to me through the President of the United States.'' ''I saw the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island,'' he said, ''as being the ultimate statement that the private sector could accomplish work that the Government had traditionally done and that it could accomplish it better - the classic casebook history of the private sector working for the good of the American public.'' The 45-year-old Mr. Rovsek had developed a reputation as a driven and imaginative marketing impresario who had dreamed up sweepstakes and other campaigns for more than 100 leading consumer product companies. He had also raised large sums of money in recent Republican Presidential campaigns and had been hired by the Reagan Administration to stage such events as Fourth of July celebrations and Easter egg rolls on the White House lawn.

Economy The economy remained expansive in October, with production levels and new orders holding their own, according to a national survey of purchasing managers. [Page D1.] Third-quarter corporate profits were generally flat or down, but several analysts are optimistic that results will begin improving. The manufacturing and technology sectors remained weak, while many service companies continued to perform well. [D4.]

Pantry Pride Inc. began consolidating its ownership of Revlon Inc. over the weekend as lawyers for the two companies discussed an ''orderly'' transfer of control following Pantry Pride's victory Friday in the three-month takeover battle. Sources close to Pantry Pride said yesterday that Revlon shareholders had tendered or promised to tender about 27 million shares, or 93 percent, of the beauty products and health-care company's stock on a fully diluted basis, by the deadline of 12:01 A.M. Saturday. Ronald O. Perelman, Pantry Pride's chairman and chief executive officer, said yesterday that although Pantry Pride now owns Revlon, it still has not gained control of Revlon's board or decided what parts of the company it wants to keep and what parts, if any, it might sell. Pantry Pride officials said no discussions had been held with Michel C. Bergerac, Revlon's chairman and chief executive officer, although the 53-year-old executive is widely expected to leave the company he has headed for a decade. Mr. Bergerac, who stands to gain $35 million in severance pay and stock options if he leaves, has an unlisted home telephone number and could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Children hung from fire escapes and shared the narrow, littered hallways with drug dealers at 3 o'clock in the morning. The sound of gunfire carried into the rooms from the street below. Mothers called to their children to keep away from the half-lighted stairwells. And everywhere this weekend there were children, 5, 7, 10 years old, who talked matter-of-factly of drugs, muggings and shootings. The Holland Hotel, on the north side of 42d Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, exists in a world all its own. ''This man was going up the stairs with a big needle, carrying it like this,'' LaKiesha Small, 10 years old, said, placing her arm across her chest. ''I ran down the stairs.

Candidates for offices from mayor of New York to suburban town supervisor spent a blustery Sunday in traditional last-minute campaigning in the New York metropolitan area yesterday. Few races in the election tomorrow have been judged to be close, with most largely determined by the dominance of Democrats in New York City and of Republicans in its suburbs. The polls will be open from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M. throughout the state. Most Active Weekend In New York City, where most contests were effectively decided in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary, the weekend provided the most activity of the seven-week campaign. Mayor Koch has campaigned largely through his normal functions as the Mayor, while his principal challengers, City Council President Carol Bellamy, who is the Liberal Party candidate, and Diane McGrath, the Republican candidate, have lacked the money to wage full-scale campaigns.

''The skirted suit should become the uniform for almost all business and political situations.'' John Molloy ''The Woman's Dress for Success Book,'' 1977. ''We've brainwashed ourselves into thinking that executive wear is synonymous with a suit.'' Mary Fiedorek ''The Executive Style: Looking It, Living It,'' 1983.