What was going on when I was born?

Rates charged for many telephone services are being increased dramatically as a result of major changes occurring in the telephone industry. In the last three months, large corporate users of phone lines have been hit by a series of rate increases totaling 40 percent or more, and there are indications that consumers may soon be seeing similar increases. In Texas the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, which won a statewide rate increase in February, has requested another one that would double the minimum monthly charge for phone service in some cities. The New York Telephone Company wants to nearly double the charge for installing a phone to $108.10 and to raise pay phone rates to 25 cents. ''There really has been in the last 12 months a greater disruption in telephone rates than in the entire history of the industry,'' said Steven G. Chrust, a telephone industry analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

The Federal Communications Commission granted CBS Inc. special permission today to purchase a cable television system to experiment in the cable field. The ruling made CBS the first of the three major networks to gain a toehold in the new and growing medium. Moreover, commission members indicated in impromptu remarks during their meeting today that they favored reconsidering a 10-year-old ban on network ownership of cable systems. The CBS request, made last December, is the only one that has been filed so far by the three networks for entry into the cable field. The commissioners indicated today that, with the rapid growth of cable networks in recent years, the original reason to keep the networks out of this field might no longer apply. In cable's early days, it was feared that the networks would attempt to gain control of cable and prevent it from competing effectively with broadcasting.

Vaslav Nijinsky, the great Russian dancer who was driven from the stage by madness in 1917 at the peak of his fame, recorded his thoughts and ravings in the next two years in a diary that he signed ''God Nijinsky.'' Although the diary was published in 1946 while Nijinsky was still alive, and the original handwritten volumes were sold at auction in 1979 for more than $100,000, a long-suppressed preface by the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler has now been printed for the first time, in The Archives of General Psychiatry. The preface is the only published first-hand professional opinion of Nijinsky, whose mental illness led to consultations with all the foremost experts of his day, including Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Its publication was prevented by Nijinsky's wife, Romola, who is said to have found its clinical observations distasteful, objecting in particular to Adler's belief that Nijinsky's schizophrenia was rooted in a pathological sense of inferiority. She replaced the preface with one of her own, which glorified her husband.

The Pabst Brewing Company yesterday entered the competition to buy the troubled Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, which last week accepted a lower offer from the G. Heileman Brewing Company. A Pabst-Schlitz union would enhance Pabst's position as the nation's third-largest brewer, with about 17 percent of the United States beer market, up from 8.4 percent. The proposal made by Pabst, based in Milwaukee, is valued at $588 million, through a combination of $200 million in cash and $388 million in debentures, equal to $20 a share. The debentures, bearing interest of 15.5 percent, would be convertible into Pabst common stock at $27 a share.

WHEN the women's softball team of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation beat its bitter rival, the Green Jeans from the Sperry & Hutchinson Company, 10 to 4 last week, there was much joy on the I.T.T. side of the sandlot. The players shrieked, and hugged and kissed one another. The center fielder threw her glove into the air. Several infielders did a victory jig. Then the chant went up: ''I.T.T.!'' ''I.T.T.!'' ''I.T.T.!'' On the Green Jeans' side of Central Park softball diamond No. 3, Fred Santitoro, the coach, tried to cheer up his depressed players, who were wearing the snappy green and white uniforms that their company bought them last year after they beat I.T.T. for the women's league championship. ''Don't worry,' he said soothingly. ''We'll still meet 'em in the playoffs, and we'll get 'em then.'' Anyone who thinks that corporations are stuffy and impersonal has obviously never seen any of the city's corporate softball teams go at each other. The teams play an average of once a week during the summer months, mainly in Central Park and on Randalls Island.

In hectic 11th-hour maneuvering, both the Du Pont Company and the Mobil Corporation yesterday increased the cash portion of their takeover bids for Conoco Inc. Many Wall Street analysts maintained that, unless Mobil could somehow gain a favorable ruling in one of its many court suits, then E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, which has already received tenders of 49 million shares, or about 57 percent of Conoco, would be in control of the nation's ninth-largest oil company as early as today. Two court rulings last night favored Du Pont. In one, a Federal appeals court judge rejected Mobil's request for an injunction to stop the Du Pont tender offer. In the other, United States District Court Judge Harold Greene, in Washington, approved a consent decree worked out by Du Pont and the Justice Department that said the chemical company's acquisition of Conoco was free of antitrust problems.

International A protest continued in Warsaw untroubled by the police. A column of buses and trucks blocked a key downtown intersection for a second day, and the independent labor union staged two brief strikes and a march in southern Poland, all in protest against food shortages. (Page A1, Column 3.) A Soviet Baltic fleet exercise was confirmed by the Defense Department. It said there seemed to be no link to the situation in Poland and that the amphibious fleet was apparently preparing for landing maneuvers. Pentagon officials said the fleet was capable of carrying more than 4,000 Soviet troops. (A8:1-4.)

''You wake up with it,'' said Larry R. C. Stephen. ''You dream it. I'd wake up at 4:30 in the morning reciting the law. Even while you are studying, you are constantly wondering, 'Am I going to pass this thing?', or, 'What if I don't pass?' After that, taking the exam is the easy part.'' Mr. Stephen is one of 5,300 would-be lawyers for whom three years of law school all came down to last week's 12 1/2-hour New York State bar examination. As a rule, at least 25 percent of those who take the test fail, but none of them will know how they did until this fall.

A column of buses and trucks continued to block the center of Warsaw today while, in southern Poland, the independent trade union staged two brief strikes and a march against food shortages. The union, after having warned the Government that it would plunge Warsaw into labor unrest if force was used to disperse the motorized protest, converted the intersection barricaded by the vehicles into a teach-in today. The convoy was halted yesterday by the police, who denied it permission to pass by the headquarters of the Communist Party's Central Committee, suggesting instead an alternate route down Marszalkowska Street, the main north-south artery. Scene Is Almost Festive But the union insisted on its initial route, forcing a confrontation with the police that eased last night. Today the scene turned almost festive as crowds gathered around the vehicles in sunny weather.

Du Pont increased the cash portion of its takeover bid for Conoco by $3, to $98 a share, while Mobil raised its bid by $5, to $120 a share. With the deadline for stockholders to take back their shares from Du Pont expiring last midnight, Mobil was maneuvering on several fronts to keep its bid alive. But many Wall Street analysts maintained that, unless Mobil could somehow gain more time, then Du Pont, which has already received tenders of 49 million shares, or about 57 percent of Conoco, would win the battle as early as today. (Page D1.) Pabst challenged the G. Heileman Brewing Company in a bid to buy Schlitz. The Pabst offer was valued at $588 million, combining $200 million in cash and $388 million in debentures. It compared to an offer of $494 million by Heileman. (D1.)

OPERATION By JOSEPH B. TREASTER Commercial flights across the country were reduced from the normal daily schedule of 14,200 to about 8,000 yesterday, the second day of the air traffic controllers' strike. But delays for individual flights were cut sharply and crowding and confusion at airport terminals had eased considerably. One of the biggest problems, several airline spokesmen said, was a scarcity of passengers. ''People just aren't coming out for fear of being caught in the problems,'' said Jim Ashlock, a spokesman at the Eastern Airlines headquarters in Miami.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation today disclosed a two-and-a-half-year undercover operation in which agents ''laundered'' millions of dollars in cash to gain information on the financial side of South Florida's multibillion-dollar narcotics trade. With the help of the names and assets obtained in the operation, agents today began arresting the first of 61 suspects, most of them Colombians. Operation Bancoshares, as it was called, issued cashier's checks or wired bank transfers in exchange for paper sacks, cloth bags or suitcases full of cash, according to a statement by the bureau. Sometimes as much as $1 million was handled, the statement said.