What was going on when I was born?

''The City of New York has established that it's a long-distance runner and you can depend on us.'' - Mayor Koch, in Miami to sell municipal bonds. (B6:1.)

The Reagan Administration said today that the Soviet Union had spurned repeated American appeals to use its influence in Afghanistan to end the hijacking of an airliner by three Pakistanis and that it had allowed the hijackers to obtain automatic weapons in Kabul. In a fresh attack on Moscow as well as the Afghan Government, William J. Dyess, a State Department spokesman, said that neither ''did what they could have done to help resolve the matter.'' ''I don't see how the Soviets can entirely escape responsibility for what took place,'' Mr. Dyess said. A Quick Rejoinder From Soviet In a prompt rejoinder, the Soviet Embassy said the ''crude and undignified attempt'' to hold Moscow responsible ''is completely groundless.''

''Banished'' in South Africa, she vows to overcome A2 U.S. critic of Salvador aid meets with Duarte A4 Two U.N. troops are killed in southern Lebanon A6 Unexpected rhinos resurface in Borneo A8 Irish face brood of jobless, bored teen-agers A9 Ex-hostage is held in Syria for possible extradition to Canada A10 Moslems held in hijacking make a pilgrimage to Mecca A11 Mauritania says it foiled Moroc- can-backed coup attempt A12 Turkey continues to hold non- Communist labor leaders A13 Government/Politics State Legislature passes $165.8 million deficiency budget B2 Bush beats drum for Reagan's economic plans on Florida trip B10 Reagan assails bureaucrats who have criticized budget cuts B10 Debate opens on plan to cut food stamp program B13 Koch charges city judges with ''di- luting'' gun control law B20 Industry/Labor Union negotiators extend strike deadline in coal talks B14 Obituaries Dr. Monica Blumenthal, geriatric psychiatrist B14 Eleanor Perry, wrote screenplays B14 PARADE TODAY The St. Patrick's Day Parade begins at noon and proceeds along Fifth Ave- nue from 44th Street to 86th Street, then turns east to Third Avenue, where it disbands. The parade generally lasts until 5 P.M. Science Times The unprofitable drugs nobody wants to make C1 Research investigates the nature of memory C1 Working by hand on the space shuttle C1 About Education: junior highs and middle schools C1 An eyewitness is not always the best witness C2 Science Watch C2 The Doctor's World C3 General Around the Nation A14 Turner Catledge reflects on eve of 80th birthday A14 Postal Service plan evokes opposi- tion in Maryland A15 Two bomb devices dismantled in Harlem apartment building B2 Rentals begin for apartments at Battery Park City B3 Suspect's parents testify at hear- ing in Met slaying B4 The Region B6 The City B11 Arts/Entertainment ''Request Concert,'' play about a solitary woman, at the Interart C6 ''America,'' a revue, opens at Radio City Music Hall C7 Strindberg's antifeminism is raised by ''The Father'' C7 ''Palmerstown'' returns on CBS C17 ''Shakespeare's Division of Ex- perience'' is reviewed C18 Style Notes on Fashion B12 Leather proliferating outdoors B12 From Scaasi, starfish and other custom-made ideas B12 Sports White Sox top Mets; Fisk absent B16 Sundberg talks of Yank prospects B16 Flynn signs five-year Mets' pact B16 Brown leaves U.C.L.A. to become Nets' coach B17 Syracuse beats Holy Cross, 77-57, in N.I.T. B17 Leo Williams is a no-nonsense high jumper B17 Oregon State coach against byes in N.C.A.A. B17 N.H.L. issues fines and suspen- sions for brawl B18 N.B.A. hires counseling service for players B18 Anderson on the confessions of a computer B19 Features/Notes Notes on People B8 Going Out Guide C6 News Analysis David E. Rosenbaum on Reagan's ''social safety net'' plan A1 Richard Eder discusses U.S.- French relations A3 Steven Weisman on Reagan's un- freezing of funds for New York B3 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A16 Ireland's friends Nit-picking Reagan's plan Construction success Topics: before trial and dinner Letters A16 Stephen B. Cohen: let's draw the line in Belize A17 John Hart Ely and Laurence H. Tribe: let there be life A17 Vasily P. Aksyonov: the day I lost my citizenship A17 William J. Byron: Irish eyes on hunger A17

A strike by transit workers in Philadelphia forced hundreds of thousands of commuters to find alternative ways of getting to work. Page A14. By ALFONSO A. NARVAEZ Special to the New York Times NEWARK, March 16 - Officials of the New Jersey Transit Corporation called today for a 50 percent increase in fares that would affect 255,000 daily bus riders and 71,000 rail commuters. They also sought reductions in service on bus and rail lines and warned that further increases in fares of 20 to 40 percent would be needed early next year.

More than half the people in the country with incomes below the official poverty line either receive no protection from what President Reagan has termed the ''social safety net'' or get, at most, a free lunch for their children on school days. At the same time, an examination of Federal statistics shows that the seven programs the President has exempted from his proposed budget reductions, as a ''safety net'' for the needy, assist not only the poor but also many people who are not poor and some who are quite well off. With the placement of some programs and not others in the safety net, the President's economic plans would protect elderly Americans and veterans, regardless of their means, from the loss of Government benefits, while it would make deep cuts in welfare programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps and Medicaid, that are relied on primarily by younger families. Dispute Over Who Is 'Truly Needy' David A. Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget and the principal architect of the budget plan, acknowledges that some people who are clearly poor will have some Federal assistance reduced and that some who are clearly not poor will continue to get payments.

The Chase Manhattan Bank and the First National Bank of Chicago reduced their prime lending rates yesterday to 17 1/2 percent from 18 percent, increasing the likelihood that other banks would soon join the downward movement. Last week, the Chemical Bank was the first major bank to move to 17 1/2 percent from the 18 percent level. The Bank of New York announced that it had reduced its broker loan rate to 16 percent from 16 1/2 percent. At most other banks this rate, which banks charge on loans to finance the margin accounts of brokerage firm customers, stands at 17 percent.

A Company News item in Business Day on Feb. 28 incorrectly reported an agreement involving the Madison Gas and Electric Company and the Cross Plains Electric Company. The agreement in principle provides for Madison Gas to purchase the assets of Cross Plains in exchange for Madison Gas common stock.

''Suppose we try to recall a forgotten name. The state of our consciousness is peculiar. There is a gap therein, but no mere gap. It is a gap that is intensely active. A sort of wraith of the name is in it; beckoning us in a given direction, making us at moments tingle with the sense of closeness and then letting us sink back without the longed for term. If wrong names are proposed to us, this singularly definite gap acts immediately so as to negate them.'' WILLIAM JAMES By WALTER SULLIVAN IN the years since 1893 when James made those observations about the frustrating nature of man's memory, researchers have been energetically trying to understand and find ways to improve recall. Although it has been a contentious field of inquiry, lately there have been signs that a clearer conception of the memory process is at hand and, some believe, that chemicals may hold the key to countering the deterioration of memory, especially in the elderly. A prominent area of research has been the use of clinical and animal tests to explore hints that certain chemicals can enhance the synthesis of acetylcholine within the brain. Acetylcholine is believed to play a key role in the transmission of nerve impulses.

Persuaded by a Florida schoolboy that his ''wrong answer'' was in fact correct, the Educational Testing Service has raised the scores of nearly a quarter million high school students who took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test in October. The testing service acknowledged that Daniel Lowen, a 17-year-old student at Cocoa Beach High School in Florida, found an answer that had eluded not only the testmakers but also a panel of 16 college professors. The testing service has notified high schools and test takers around the country that credit will be given for either answer. Since the test is used to screen applicants for National Merit Scholarships, an additional 200 students will join the ranks of the 15,000 ''semifinalists'' in that competition, and another 450 students will be added to the list of 35,000 scheduled to receive ''commendations'' from the scholarship sponsors.

WASHINGTON EVERY so often a box full of brownish powder, a chemical called 5-HTP for short, arrives at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in upper Manhattan from a chemical manufacturer in San Diego. At Mount Sinai, staff workers in the laboratory of Dr. Melvin Van Woert funnel the powder, which costs about $1,000 a pound, into little capsules by hand. They dispense them to patients suffering from a rare but severely debilitating neurological disorder called myoclonus, which seems to respond to no regularly marketed drug. The reason Dr. Van Woert has to resort to such a homemade remedy is that myoclonus, marked by uncontrollable jerking of arms and legs, is so rare that no drug company would find enough of a market for the chemical, whose full name is 5-hydroxy-tryptophan, to make it worthwhile to do all the testing and paperwork needed to obtain Government approval for commercial distribution as a drug. So the best the physician can do is treat with a crude chemical - whose safety, toxicity, efficacy and dosage effects have never been scientifically tested - under special permission that the Federal Food and Drug Administration sometimes grants in such circumstances. It is a cumbersome mechanism.

When the fellows from the Good Buy crew gathered at Sullivan's Bar yesterday morning, they thought they were going on a gambling trip to Atlantic City. Indeed, the big blue and white bus parked in front of the tavern had a sign in the front window that read, ''Good Buy Charter.'' Instead, the bus took 25 of them to jail as suspects after a fourmonth-long undercover operation in which the police, working out of Manhattan's Diamond District, posed as fences. The Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said that some of those seized yesterday at the bar at 738 Eighth Avenue were among 29 persons indicted as a result of the investigation, dubbed Operation Good Buy. The name was taken from the fourth-floor 47th Street shop the police used as a front for their bogus fencing operation.

Gov. Pierre S. du Pont 4th of Delaware has been crisscrossing the country shopping for large banks interested in increasing their profits. The Governor wants them to relocate in Delaware and, as his aides put it, take advantage of the state's ''hospitable climate'' of ''political stability and predictability.'' The Governor's main inducement is a new comprehensive Delaware law aimed at out-of-state banks. It would grant them a wide range of credit powers, unavailable in most states, that could affect millions of credit card customers. These powers include the ability to charge interest rates not subject to any legal ceiling, to raise interest rates retroactively, to charge variable interest rates, to levy unlimited fees for credit card usage and to foreclose on a home in the event of default for credit card debts.