What was going on when I was born?

Heavy rain and choking streams of traffic trapped commuters entering and leaving New York City yesterday in the worst tie-ups since the nine-day-old bus and subway strike began. Violence added to the city's troubles as the police reported more than 20 buses damaged by vandals in six incidents believed to be related to the strike.

WASHINGTON, April 9--Despite President Carter's curtailment of grain shipments to the Soviet Union, the Russians have managed to buy most of the feed grains they were thought to need before their harvest this summer, Agriculture Department officials said today.

THIS year, as the middle of April nears, spring seems to have taken New York ers by surprise. Deck chairs are just now being unfolded and unstacked, lounge chair pillows unwrapped and benches uncovered.

There was one cheering development in the continuing transit strike: Contrary to previous belief and report, the city is not running out of slats for the Brooklyn Bridge.

THE possibility cannot be excluded that in due time someone not yet born will come up to us and say, "And what, grandpa, did you do in the transit strike of 1980?"

JERUSALEM, April 9--Israel invaded southern Lebanon today, sending tanks, infantrymen, armored personnel carriers and halftracks about five miles across the border, where they were reportedly digging in for what appeared to be an extended stay, according to a United Nations spokesman.

Yesterday, the ninth day of the transit strike, was the day everyone knew was coming, the day when the weather was foul and tempers were getting that way, too. It was windy. It was rainy. Fewer people felt like walking, and more like driving. Traffic was terrible. The novelty had worn off, and blisters were developing on feet and souls.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, April 9-- Hunger is ever-present in Cambodia, where in normal days the granaries would be full. There are almost no rice seeds in farmers' hands as the planting season approaches.

The stock market rose sharply yesterday, with energy and the computer issues registering the largest advances.

When John C. Duncan, chairman and chief executive officer of the St. Joe Minerals Corporation, was brought in by the board of directors in 1970 to shake the lead and zinc producer out of its lethargy and to diversify its business, he found that the company was being run "like a corner grocery store."

HAVANA, April 9--A man in a stolen taxi crashed through a police barricade in an effort to gain refuge in the Peruvian Embassy today, drawing a burst of gunfire that injured a 7-year-old child and two adults inside the compound.

LOS ANGELES, April 9--The new renegotiable rate mortgages approved by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board last week to help the savings and loan industry adjust to volatile interest rates cannot in the short term brighten the industry's dismal picture, industry experts say.