What was going on when I was born?

With reservoir levels continuing to drop despite recent rains, the Delaware River Basin Commission has doubled its cutback in New York City's daily water allotment from three upstate reservoirs. Dawes Thompson, a spokesman for the commission, said from Trenton yesterday that water in New York's Pepacton, Cannonsville and Neversink Reservoirs had slipped to 93.3 billion gallons Wednesday, 34.4 percent of their capacity, requiring another cut of 120 million gallons a day in the amount the city can take from them. On Nov. 10, the commission, which regulates the use of Delaware River water, issued a drought warning when storage in the reservoirs dropped to 106 billion gallons, 39.2 percent of their capacity. The commission also cut the city's allotment from its normal 800 million gallons a day to 680 million gallons, effective Nov. 13.

Leon Jaworski, the Texas lawyer who earned national fame as special prosecutor in the Watergate case, died today at his ranch near Wimberley, Tex. He was 77 years old. According to Jack Proctor, a partner at the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski, Mr. Jaworski died, apparently of a heart attack, while working on a field at the 300-acre ranch, about 35 miles southwest of Austin. He was found by the ranch manager. Gibson Gayle, managing partner of the law firm, said that Mr. Jaworski had been suffering from cancer of the pancreas since February but that it had appeared to be under control.

President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan said in New York yesterday that there was a ''hint of flexibility'' in the Soviet attitude toward its military intervention in Afghanistan and that the Soviet leadership might recognize a need for an early resolution of the Afghan crisis. But Mr. Zia said his Government would refuse to accept the Soviet Union's ''rigid insistence'' that Pakistan hold direct talks with the Soviet-supported Afghan Government of Babrak Karmal. In a luncheon speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel before the Foreign Policy Association, Mr. Zia also made these points: - The six-year, $3.2 billion United States aid package for Pakistan reaffirmed by President Reagan during Mr. Zia's official visit to Washington ''has laid the foundation for a credible and enduring relationship.'' - His Government is determined to pursue ''a relationship of good neighborly cooperation'' with its traditional enemy, India.

Most of the members of the Civil Aeronautics Board said today that they favored taking a major step in deregulating the sale of airline tickets, thus ending a 40-year-old system under which tickets can only be sold by the airlines and accredited travel agents. Four of the five members of the C.A.B. said at a hearing that they would vote in favor of eliminating ''exclusivity,'' under which ticket sales outside the airlines themselves are limited to agents accredited by the Air Traffic Conference of America, an industry trade group. The agents receive commissions averaging about 10 percent of ticket prices. If exclusivity is eliminated in a C.A.B. vote, expected next week, then anyone could approach an airline and negotiate an agreement to sell tickets on the airline's routes. Also, airlines would be free to approach retail stores, companies such as American Express and other outlets to handle their tickets.

A Detroit dispatch by United Press International yesterday incorrectly described a judge's action involving James R. Hoffa, the teamsters union president who disappeared in 1975. The judge declared him ''presumed dead.'' A corrected article is on page D17.

The Manville Corporation is looking awfully good for a company in bankruptcy - at least so far. Unlike most other corporations that file for protection from their creditors under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy law, Manville is still trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and its shares are slowly rising. They have climbed from 4 1/4 on Aug. 27, the day after Manville's bankruptcy filing, to 9 1/2, where they closed yesterday. Manville's third-quarter profit of $24.3 million, compared with $12.6 million a year earlier, is another sign of strength, even though part of the latest earnings resulted from the deferral of interest payments that followed the bankruptcy filing.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin says he has decided not to exercise his right to reappear or cross-examine witnesses before the state commission investigating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Beirut. In a letter to the commission, written Tuesday and made public by the panel today, Mr. Begin reiterated his previous arguments that ''there were no grounds to assume that atrocities against a civilian population would be perpetrated'' by the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militiamen who were asked by the Israeli Army to enter two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut last September. He said the Cabinet had been told that the Phalangists would face ''difficult fighting'' against ''the many terrorists fortified in the camps.'' He denied that the Chief of Staff, Lieut. Gen. Rafael Eytan, had warned of a possible massacre. The letter came in response to a commission warning that Mr. Begin could be harmed by the results of the inquiry if it found ''that the Prime Minister did not appropriately consider the role to be played by the Lebanese Forces during and due to the I.D.F.'s entry into West Beirut, and ignored the danger of acts of revenge and bloodshed by these forces against the population in the refugee camps.''

It was all very simple really - no complicated negotiations or throngs of Secret Service agents. It could, in fact, emerge as a new diplomatic style. Ten American students, aged 10 through 13, went to the Soviet Government's compound in the Bronx yesterday to meet with Soviet youngsters and discuss their common hopes for peace. While the theme was to be nuclear disarmament, there were no formal discussions - and instead it came down to movies and mazurkas, the exchange of telephone numbers, the promise of romance.

''IT'S an awful lot of work playing the clarinet,'' Benny Goodman remarked the other day. And as if to prove his point, the otherwise immaculate living room of his East Side apartment was strewn with the tools of his trade. Two clarinets were out of their cases and ready to play, and dozens of little purple boxes, each containing several cane reeds, were scattered everywhere. ''You have to practice,'' he added. ''Of course, these days a clarinet player is likely to be subjected to amplifiers. I think that's one of the reasons you don't hear many jazz clarinetists anymore.'' There will be no amplifiers at ''Clarinet Summit,'' a concert taking place at the Public Theater tomorrow night at 11. But there will be jazz clarinetists, four of them, and that's four more than are ordinarily encountered in jazz clubs and concerts. There are signs, and this concert is one of them, that jazz clarinet is coming back. High time, too, for the jazz clarinet has been an endangered species.

For the last two weeks, in sales lasting six hours, a full day, two days, an entire weekend, the New York City area's major retailers have been hurling bargain after bargain at Christmas shoppers. It has been one of the heaviest retail promotional campaigns in memory, but so far, midway through the crucial holiday shopping season, sales have been disappointing. Admittedly, the bargains offered by the stores have been intended mostly as a lure to bring the holiday crowds inside during a stretch of unseasonally warm weather, The hope was that they would buy some of the regularly priced, more profitable goods after they had shopped around a while. But while the strategy worked to a limited extent, the retailers said, it has not generated enough sales to make this a promising season.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday agreed to help Pan American World Airways refinance its main terminal at Kennedy International Airport in an attempt to raise more than $50 million for the troubled air carrier. It was the first such action by the public authority to help a private company. Authority officials said the step was being taken because Pan Am was a major employer in the area and had raised the possibility of moving out of New York if its finances worsened. ''Pan Am is a major tenant of ours, they are based in New York and they have more than 10,000 employees here,'' said Robert J. Aaronson, director of aviation for the Port Authority.''The Port Authority is concerned with the company's welfare.''

President Reagan proposed a new farm plan under which surplus Government grain, cotton and rice would be given to farmers to sell or use for animal feed if they left up to half of their land idle in 1983. The idea, he said, would be to re-establish a balance between supply and demand. (Page A1.) In Brussels today, the U.S. will again ask the Common Market to stop subsidizing farm exports. (D3.) Most C.A.B. members said they favor deregulating ticker sales. Such a move would end a 40-year system under which tickets may be sold only by the airlines and accredited travel agents. The board's vote on the proposal is expected next week. (D1.)