What was going on when I was born?

Despite pressure on banks by the Carter Administration to refrain from raising interest rates, the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company yesterday increased its prime lending rate to 14 percent from 14 percent.

MERRILY and Endicott ("Hap") Hazard have a reputation for taking on unusual design jobs. It came as no surprise to them, therefore, when they were asked to do over a house for Trilby, the well-known stage dog.

HOME sweet home it may be, but the coziest nest can mask a houseful of hazards, recent Government reports sug gest. Potential threats to health and safety are now feared lurking behind the walls, underfoot, in plain sight or in the air, in the form of aluminum wiring, urea formaldehyde insulation, asbestos products, radioactive building

Further testing, repairs and possibly a complete replacement of the cooling-system plumbing at the Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor may keep the plant closed for several months, officials of Consolidated Edison said yesterday.

When Robert Marbut enrolled as an undergraduate at Georgia Tech, he picked architecture as his major. "Everyone said be an architect," he recalls. "and so I figured why not."

CLEVELAND, Oct.29--The 90-minute debate last night between President Carter and Ronald Reagan left behind almost as many contradictions of fact as disputes over policy.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29--To the casual eye at least, last night's debate between President Carter and Ronald Reagan provided further evidence that the economy has not been the deciding campaign issue that many expected to be.

Jolted by inflation, recession and the high cost of gasoline, Americans this year have been taking millions more intercity bus trips than in 1979 or 1978.

THE bleachers were set up in the Seventh Avenue showrooms that Perry Ellis had had constructed in the gracious space once occupied by a bank.

DETROIT, Oct. 29--The Chrysler Corporation today reported a $490 million loss in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, and company officials hailed the figures as at least an improvement over the auto maker's even bigger second-quarter losses.

TEHERAN, Iran, Thursday, Oct. 30-- A public session of Iran's Parliament, which was scheduled to discuss the issue of the American hostages, was called off today for lack of a quorum, the state radio reported. Some members accused hard-liners of boycotting the session to prevent resolution of the hostage crisis.

The Bendix Corporation, now gearing up for a redeployment of its operations into high technology, said yesterday that it would sell its 6.1 million shares of Asarco stock back to Asarco for $55 a share, or some $335.5 million.