What was going on when I was born?

It rises like a vision out of the sea, beautiful, white and centuries-old, as the Arab dhow hurries across the strait that separates the island and town of Lamu from the northeast coast of Kenya. The Somalia border is not far away.

A rainstorm caused widespread power failures and floods and at least one death yesterday in the New York metropolitan region, but left barely two inches of rain. The amount was scarcely noticeable in the reservoirs of the drought-stricken states of New Jersey and New York.

BEDFORD has joined other northern Westchester towns in attempting to alert residents that their privacy can work against them.

HARTFORD WHETHER work can proceed legally on the design of the Connecticut section of a four-lane highway linking this city with Providence, R.I., is scheduled to be argued Tuesday in Federal District Court here.

"We don't have much of a choice. They're all a bunch of idiots," said Clare Conte of Floral Park, L.I. "I don't know who to vote for. They're all horrible," said Barbara Smith of Shaker Heights, Ohio. "Probably Carter. We know what he's not capable of," said her neighbor, Arnold Reisman. "I won't vote. They are all telling the same lies," said Mildred Alford of Pittsburgh.

For many families, especially first-time home buyers, the opportunity to purchase a new onefamily home or a resale home appears increasingly remote. But if the buyer is ready to choose an older urban area as distinct from a newer suburban location, the possibility is that one or another private or government revitalization effort will be of help.

TRENTON THE New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club voiced opposition last week to the proposed Natural Resources Bond Act, saying that the state's Department of Environmental Protection had failed to "assure the public's interest" in some provisions of the Nov. 4 referendum proposal.

ROME, Oct. 25--Pope John Paul II, speaking at the closing session of a Synod of Bishops, said today that divorced Roman Catholics who remarry may not receive communion unless they abstain from sexual relations.

WASHINGTON, Sunday, Oct. 26-- Iran's special commission on the hostages was said yesterday to have circulated privately to other members of Parliament its recommendations for freeing the 52 Americans as reports persisted that the Iranians might decide on a stageby-stage release in formal debate in their Parliament today.

HARTFORD REPRESENTATIVE Ralph E. Van Nor strand of Darien is an expert in the disposition of legislation by lopsided majorities, but he is hoping to end his study of the sub ject.

AS schlepper triumphant, Woody Allen is living refutation of every Jewish mother's night mare: a 60-pound weakling who has parlayed his inheritance of fear, self-hate and love of finger foods into a fortune big enough to buy up all the ...