What was going on when I was born?

Farmers in Connecticut are reporting widespread damage to crops and farmland from the floods that struck the southern half of the state two weeks ago. The agricultural community was among the hardest hit by the flooding, which left 12 dead and caused estimated damage of $276 million in the state and lesser damage in New York and New Jersey. Moderate damage to hay and vegetable crops was suffered in New York and minor delays in crop maturation in New Jersey. One early estimate of the cash loss to farmers in Connecticut was at least $2.5 million, but later reports indicate that it may be much more.

''Let's hope for a cool summer.'' -John D. Simpson, Transit Authority president, on bus and subway air-conditioning. (A1:1.)

Bustling British stores belie lag- ging life styles A2 Cambodian groups are expected to announce a coalition A3 Venezuela's claim to most of Guyana is alive again A3 Weinberger says U.S. isn't plan- ning protracted nuclear war A5 Britain reclaims Thule in South Sandwich Islands A6 Argentines still struggling to pick a leader A6 Around the World A7 Marshall Island landowners pro- test deal on arms tests A8 For some Lebanese Christians, a village is again home A10 Lebanese tells of being "humili- ated" by Israeli soldiers A10 Israelis trying to ease trade with southern Lebanon A12 Greeks give Palestinians a wave of popular support A13 Washington Talk Briefing A16 Calendar A16 Christian Right presses views in Government A16 General Around the Nation A14 Philadelphia ceremonies mark national Bald Eagle Day A14 The metropolitan area enjoys a sunny weekend day B1 West Hartford, Conn., finds itself to be an aging community B2 Miss America pageant to drop familiar song B3 News Analysis Thomas L. Friedman on Arab inaction in Lebanon war A1 Stuart Taylor Jr. on instructions to Hinckley jury A14 Gene I. Maeroff on problems new City U. chancellor will face B1 William Serrin on unionists' re- sponse to court decision B5 SportsMonday Auto Racing: Cale Yarborough wins Gabriel 400 in Michigan C10 Baseball: Bill Veeck from the bleachers C6 Stearns's triple in 10th tops Cardinals, 5-4 C1 Orioles beat Yanks, 5-3, on pinch-homer in 11th C5 Jackson hits third homer in three games as Angels win, 3-1 C6 Columns: Dave Anderson on Tom Watson C1 George Vecsey on Weaver- Dempsey "confrontations" C6 Features: Sports World Specials C2 Question Box C11 Golf: Watson outduels Nicklaus and wins U.S. Open by 2 shots C1 Jan Stephenson takes Lady Keystone by a stroke C8 Gymnastics: Dianne Durham, 15, vaults from obscurity C4 Horse Racing: Cruguet back rid- ing horses he and his wife train C3 Outdoors: A new style of surf- casting C11 Soccer: Third world nations sur- prise in World Cup play C7 Cosmos win, 3-2, on Chinaglia's first goal in 4 games C7 Statistics C12 Tennis: Wimbledon takes heed of player trends C1 Track: Olson and Ripley set U.S. pole-vault record of 18-9 1/4 C3 Style Relationships: pitfalls of travel- ing together A17 Stepparents: erasing the "wicked" image A17 A black-tie debutante party on the North Shore A17 Arts/Entertainment Tennessee Wiliams is the hottest name on Soviet stage C13 Western Wind sings two cen- turies of madrigals C13 "Letters to Orpheus" Offered by Royal Danish Ballet C15 Annie Girardot in Moshe Mizra- hi's "La Vie Continue" C15 Prokofiev's "Maddelena" pre- mieres in St. Louis C16 "Edie," the biography of Edith Sedgwick, is reviewed C18 Cable news for "people who don't like news" C18 "Ain't Misbehavin,' " with origi- nal cast, comes to television C18 Obituaries Richard Lockridge, co-author of North mysteries D9 Features/Notes New York Day by Day B2 Going Out Guide C14 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A18 The gridlocked economy California's backfire on crime Flirting with plutonium Letters A18 Anthony Lewis: "Don't over- reach yourself" A19 William Safire: supporting words with deeds A19 Fouad Ajami: the Middle East- ern oasis goes dry A19 Garland Y. DeNelsky: how psy- chiatry can aid courts A19

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. IN sports, the burden of excellence for the best athletes is that they're expected to win the best championships. If they don't, their skill is suspect. So is their nerve. So is their place in history. And in golf, the United States Open is the best championship, the most difficult to win, the most prestigious. ''If you don't win the Open,'' says 80-year-old Gene Sarazen, who won it twice, ''there's a gap in your record.'' Tom Watson has been aware of that gap in his record during his reign as the world's best golfer over the last six years. He has won three British Opens, two Masters and nearly $3 million in prize money on the PGA Tour, but that merely made the Open more important to him than it is to perhaps any other current golfer.

The foreign ministers of the European Common Market decided today to lift their trade embargo against Argentina, high-ranking European diplomats said. The decision came at the start of a three-day meeting that was to include discussion of the Falkland Islands, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and trade relations with the United States. The action came on a day when Britain announced in London that it had reclaimed the last of its South Atlantic possessions from Argentina without a fight. It said troops based on the Falklands swooped onto Thule, the southernmost of the South Sandwich Islands, and captured a team of Argentine scientists. (Page A6.)

Angry white parents buried a school bus in protest 10 years ago when Memphis school officials began busing thousands of students to desegregated schools outside their racially segregated neighborhoods. Since then the desegregation effort and the school system itself have faltered as white enrollment has declined to 24 percent from 50 percent, with private schools gaining at the expense of community support among whites for public education. Similar developments have posed difficulties for desegregation plans in many other cities around the country. Now, in a risky bid to salvage some of the desegregation that is left and to regain broad-based support for the public schools, some local school boards in the South and West are trying to lure whites by reducing busing and re-establishing neighborhood schools. They are acting, sometimes with the endorsement of blacks, even if the result is further racial segregation of some schools.

Trade ties with Europe will be further strained by the Reagan Administration's decision Friday to tighten its ban on exports of products and technology for the Soviet Union's natural gas pipeline to Western Europe, diplomats said in Luxembourg. (Page D1.) A trade embargo against Argentina will be ended, foreign ministers of the European Economic Community have decided. The decision to lift the sanctions, in place since Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in April, was made despite British protests. (A1.)

Dawn came up not at all like thunder today, and as the wind carried wispy remnants of Saturday's storm out to sea, the metropolitan area began to enjoy its first weekend in five that was not completely waterlogged. The break in a depressing routine of wet weekends came just in time for the area's resort spots, where businesses were describing a June as dismal as the forecast had been and cabin fever was reaching epidemic proportions among summer dwellers. After all, said Billy Bonbrest, proprietor of a popular East Hampton restaurant called the Laundry, ''How much antiquing can you do?'' On Fire Island, the celebration started Saturday evening, when the sun first broke through. Michael Zack, who rents a house on Ocean Beach, recalled the moment, ''At happy hour, I was on a deck and the sun broke through and everyone started cheering and clapping.''

With its fiscal footing unsteady, the confidence of its faculty weakened and its students often lacking proper preparation, the City University of New York will present its new chancellor with a very different set of problems from those that faced Dr. Robert J. Kibbee, who took over the position in 1971. In Dr. Joseph S. Murphy, who has been selected for the chancellorship by a search committee, the City University is hoping for a leader who can give the institution a psychological lift and help it regain some of its glory. Dr. Kibbee, who died Wednesday, just 14 days before he was scheduled to retire, guided the university through a turbulent decade when outside events compelled major changes in the institution. One crisis after another competed for his attention.

An article in Metropolitan Report on June 7 about a reunion of the 1950 class of the Bronx High School of Science incorrectly identified the valedictorian. She was Cynthia Fox Dember.

International Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Washington for talks with President Reagan amid signs that the Reagan Administration was divided on how to react to the Israeli military moves in Lebanon. Administration officials said that Mr. Reagan was receiving conflicting advice from advisers. Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr., they said, advocates a soft public approach to Prime Minister Begin, while a public rebuke is reportedly favored by two other senior aides, William P. Clark, the national security adviser, and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. (Page A1, Column 6.) Withdrawal of Syrian forces from Beirut was sought by President Elias Sarkis of Lebanon but the request was turned down because it appeared to have been made under duress, with Israeli guns aimed at the presidential palace, a Syrian official said. Ahmed Iskander Ahmed, Syria's information minister, said its troops would not be withdrawn ''until after the last Israeli soldier has left the country.'' (A1:.5.)

Summer has barely begun in the vast Russian grain belt that arcs eastward from the Ukraine to Kazakhstan, but the stands of winter wheat are already sere and stunted. To the expert's eye, the withered rows of grain are a sure sign that the Soviet Union is heading for yet another weak harvest - its fourth in a row - and that its 268 million people will have to wait at least one more year for the improved food supplies that the Kremlin has promised. Last year, for the first time in many years, the grain harvest was so poor that the yield was not announced. But reports are already being heard here that this year's harvest will total only 158 million tons, which would be the worst performance since 1975's disastrous yield of 140 million tons.