What was going on when I was born?

DURING a recent gathering of Bridgeport-area business leaders, bankers huddled in conversation about the unraveling economy, agreeing that things could get much worse before they get better. But instead of grabbing another round of cocktails, the bankers sipped from cups of English tea served by attendants in Victorian-style outfits. And instead of driving carrot sticks into dip, they nibbled on scones with freshly whipped cream and jam. The greenhouse at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport had been decked out for an old-fashioned garden party. Botanical prints and candlestick lamps adorned the room, and fresh flowers and antique tea-serving pieces were displayed on the white table linen. Soft classical music complemented the conversation.

OVER the last several years, a string of well-publicized murders on Long Island seem to run counter to a popular stereotype of violent crime. The crimes were not committed by poor, uneducated individuals for money or during a robbery or assault. These killings attracted widespread attention in the media, fueling fear and concern, including a how-can-it-happen-here? attitude.

All across America, state and city governments have been stricken by financial crises that were not even imagined a year ago. More than half are facing serious financial shortfalls, and many are considering Draconian measures, including huge layoffs of public employees and major cutbacks in social services and public works. Some states, like Connecticut and Rhode Island, must find a way to cut their budgets by 20 percent in the next few months.

Last June, Coronet Properties of Manhattan agreed to halt sales at Skyview-on-the-Hudson, a 1,300-unit cooperative conversion in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, after running into financial trouble. More than 400 apartments had been sold. Late in the summer, one of Coronet's lenders, the First New York Bank for Business, invested in unsold units in the complex at 5800 Arlington Avenue. It and its partners are trying to jump-start sales through a new marketing campaign. "We are not holding a fire sale but have cut the prices to reflect the change in the market since apartments first went on sale," said Dr. Georgette Bennett, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for First New York, which took unsold shares in exchange for the settlement of Coronet Properties' debts. The 25-year-old complex, on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River, comprises three 20-story buildings and has two parks, two playgrounds, two tennis courts, an outdoor pool and a clubhouse. Prices, now about 20 percent lower than originally, range from about $90,000 for an unrenovated one-bedroom unit to about $250,000 for a renovated four-bedroom apartment.

The Kansas City Chiefs strode into Soldier Field today as the team that had plenty to fight for while the Chicago Bears put up their fists and offered a challenge but were flattened. Kansas City built an 18-10 lead entering the final quarter and then watched Nick Lowery boot his fifth field goal of the game to seal a 21-10 victory before 60,262 fans. The game left both teams with 11-5 records but Chicago had already clinched its sixth division title in the last seven years and the home-field advantage in the opening week of the playoffs. Chicago will be host to either Dallas or New Orleans next weekend.

WHEN State Comptroller Edward V. Regan predicted earlier this month that New York faced a budget shortfall of $500 million, a shudder arose from Long Island's local government and school officials already braced for the impact of $1 billion in budget cuts that the state lawmakers had approved only days earlier. Then came a report from the regional commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, that the metropolitan area lost about 100,000 private-sector jobs this year, including 14,000 on Long Island alone. For the Island, Mr. Ehrenhalt said, it was the largest drop in 40 years of record keeping.

THE completion of a 14-story office building a block southeast of Copley Square has extended the Back Bay district as a home for commercial activity. Advertising agencies, insurance companies and consultants of all stripes cluster in the area. Only punchlist items remain to be finished at the $75 million office building, 116 Huntington Avenue, bringing to a close the last phase of an urban renewal project begun in the 1960's. The project transformed an 11-acre site into a 3.7-million-square-foot complex with 845,000 square feet of offices, 264,000 square feet of retail space, two hotels with 1,974 rooms and 104 luxury condominiums. The $550 million complex, Copley Place, including the Westin and Marriott hotels, was built from 1980 to 1983.

INDIA A Million Mutinies Now. By V. S. Naipaul. 521 pp. New York: Viking. $24.95.

As the 1990's began, many of the usual sports names persisted. George Steinbrenner was sentenced to baseball limbo and Pete Rose was sentenced to Federal prison. Lou Piniella guided the Cincinnati Reds to a stunning World Series sweep. The San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Pistons and Edmonton Oilers were again measured for championship rings. Jerry Tarkanian and the college basketball titleholders, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, argued with National Collegiate Athletic Association investigators. Greg LeMond repeated in cycling's Tour de France. West Germany won soccer's World Cup. The usual number was multimillion, as in salaries; sometimes even a billion, as in television contracts. But different names surfaced in 1990, different names that stirred new controversies or new scenarios.

Millions of Americans believe that the nation recently entered a recession, but like players in a baseball game, they must wait for the umpire, in this case a committee of prominent economists, to make the official call. Now the ruling has come, but weeks ahead of schedule. Normally the committee, known as the Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, issues its ruling only after observing six or more months of hard times. Just as the umpire in a baseball game waits until a pitch has crossed the plate before he calls it a ball or a strike, the committee waits until enough data has accumulated before it declares that a slowdown qualifies as a recession. Uneasy About Silence But this recession has been so anticipated by the public and so chronicled in the news media that the committee members said they felt nervous and uneasy remaining silent in the midst of the public uproar over hard times. So in a rare, jump-the-gun ruling, the committee declared that a recession probably began in the summer, most likely in August. It was as if the umpire had called a strike before the pitch crossed the plate.

On a fall Friday, just after Pepsico opened its first two Soviet Pizza Huts, a small yellow Lada puttered up to the curb outside the larger one. Out stepped a slight, middle-aged woman who wired the doors shut. The woman, a sanitary inspector, said Pizza Hut had failed to file all the necessary papers, including venereal disease tests for every employee. "This is the cleanest restaurant in Moscow," protested Andrew Rafalat, Pizza Hut's regional director for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. She shrugged, but would not relent. Just days before, American executives and Soviet officials had hailed the restaurants as evidence of a new epoch, the fruit of perestroika. Said Donald M. Kendall, head of Pepsico's executive committee, "We hope that today's opening sends a clear message to the world that Western-Soviet business initiatives can succeed."

A $60 MILLION waterfront convention center on which construction is to start early next year is being hailed by city officials and business leaders as the key to downtown revitalization. This city of 200,000 people, situated at the head of Mobile Bay 31 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, is Alabama's major port and the state's largest metropolitan area. But the downtown is a classic example of the decay of inner cities, in part because of retail flight to suburban malls, said Wilbert Wetzel, manager of the city's Office of Community Services.