What was going on when I was born?

NEW ORLEANS MICKEY HOLMES had made up his mind not to attend the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. There was no sense sitting in the Georgia press box in Athens, the executive director of the Sugar Bowl said, pretending to be calm and collected when everyone around him would know just how nervous he would become should Georgia encounter any difficulty. The Bulldogs were the nation's No.1-ranked college football team and, as Southeastern Conference champions, they had received an automatic Sugar Bowl bid. But although he couldn't watch, Holmes decided on the day of the game that he would make an attempt to listen. He set out by automobile from his home in a New Orleans suburb and headed north - destination: the first place his radio could pick up the signal of an Atlanta station. ''I was sitting in the car on an overpass where I picked up the game from Atlanta,'' Holmes said. ''I was listening, but the station was fading out, then coming back in. It seemed to fade every time Tech was moving down the field. I kept driving one way or the other to pick it up again.

''I have gone through the valley of death four times and now my posture toward politics has changed somewhat.

Aided by some of the strangest plays in their 23 seasons, the Jets bounded into the playoffs today for only the fourth time in their often frustrating history. Appropriate to the unusual day, it all happened on a warm field indoors in Minnesota in December as the Jets produced a variety show of touchdowns for the 42-14 victory over the Vikings. It was so bizarre that Bobby Jackson was honored with not only the defensive game ball, but the offensive game ball as well. For good measure, the team also threw in three other game balls for Jackson - one for his 77-yard touchdown on an interception, one for running the last 80 yards of a 95-yard touchdown play on a blocked field goal and one for a mere interception that helped position a faked field goal that went for a touchdown, too. Vikings Have Ball Longer The Jets needed strange, but true, defensive plays. The Vikings had the highest number of offensive plays in their history - 94. The Jets could run or pass only 51 times. And the Vikings also had the ball virtually twice as often as the Jets: 38 minutes 17 seconds to 21:43.

The Koch administration will seek state legislation next month to give New York City ambulance crews and emergency room physicians authority to refuse emergency ambulance service to people they decide do not need it. According to an aide to Mayor Koch, Victor E. Botnick, the proposal is intended to eliminate unnecessary ambulance runs to hospitals, reduce ambulance response time and thereby save lives in real emergencies. The Emergency Medical Service, which operates the city's ambulance service, estimates that 25 percent of its runs are for nonemergencies.

As a result of the seven deaths from cyanide-contaminated Tylenol capsules in September, the nation's largest food manufacturers have become just as concerned about the possibility of tampering as their counterparts in the pharmaceutical industry. Many are so worried that they would not even discuss the problem. Although most of the tampering incidents of the past few months have involved drugs, such as Anacin, Dristan and Excedrin in addition to Tylenol, many food manufacturers are concerned that their products could be as easy to contaminate as over-the-counter drugs. In addition, they are worried that the drug tamperings could serve as legal notice that such problems are foreseeable and that further safety measures should be taken. 'No Simple Answer' ''As soon as the Tylenol thing broke, we all began saying to one another, 'What if it happened to us?' and it was a question we couldn't shuck off,'' said Craig Shulstad, director of consumer and public affairs at General Mills Inc. ''Almost everybody in the food industry is reviewing not only their packaging but their product recall procedures. We're all wrestling with the question of where our liability as manufacturers begins - and there's no simple answer.''

International Peking told Moscow that the Chinese leadership acknowledges the necessity for compromise by both sides if they are to progress in efforts to reduce tensions. The message took the form of a greeting on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Soviet Union. (Page A1, Column 4.) Most South Koreans feel betrayed by the United States, Kim Dae Jung, the South Korean dissident politician who arrived in Washington from Seoul last week, said. Mr. Kim said the United States had failed to demand a return to democratic government in South Korea, but he said he was ''very grateful'' that the Americans had welcomed him to this country. (A1:5.)

Canada, which has always needed a constant flow of settlers to harvest its plentiful resources, is sharply reducing its immigration quotas and radically revising demographic projections in the face of high and, in some cases, chronic unemployment. Fifteen years ago, a Government study projected that this vast land, the second-largest in the world, would continue to grow in population until it held 50 million people, double today's 24 million. Now, as scores of one-industry regions are becoming noindustry regions, such visions have been greatly trimmed. Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Employment and Immigration, acknowledged in an interview earlier this month that current expectations were that Canada's economic development could sustain only limited population growth and that the total would level off at around 28 million by the turn of the century. Internal Migration At the same time, Mr. Axworthy said that Canada faces a period of internal migration as people moved in search of jobs.

Somewhere on Griffiss Air Force Base near here, in a secret location known only as the ''Category A Area,'' sit five B-52 bombers. On Dec. 16, they became the first in the United States to be equipped with the newest nuclear weapon in the American arsenal, the cruise missile. Each B-52 carries 12 missiles, each of which can fly undetected beneath radar, search out its target with the aid of a computer and deliver a nuclear warhead 15 times as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The targets have already been chosen. The planes are on war alert, all day, every day. So are three sets of flight crews, each set consisting of 44 people. One week of every three, each group resides in the ''Alert Facility,'' which is known as ''the mole hole.'' It is said to resemble a motel, and its entertainments include video games, such as Missile Command, and movies. ''Reds'' was shown last week.

Atop New England's Mount Washington the snow melted. In New York's Gramercy Park, a mosquito was sighted and swatted. In Northport, L.I., daffodil shoots poked up from beneath the soil. By 11 A.M. the temperature in Central Park had reached 63, tying the record for the day set in 1936. It was the second day in a row that a record was equaled: On Christmas Day, the temperature peaked at 64 degrees, tying the record set in 1889.

New Jersey legislators, ordered by Governor Kean to convene in a special session, will arrive in Trenton today to try to resolve their differences over a tax plan to close a $150 million state deficit. But leaders of the Assembly, which initiates tax legislation, said they would not act on any revenue measures until the Governor formally introduced a plan of his own. And Senate leaders noted that, while they were considering some proposals, they had to wait until the Assembly acted. Carl Golden, a spokesman for Mr. Kean, said yesterday that the Governor had recommended several ideas to the Legislature, including increasing the sales tax and extending it to professional services. He said the Governor would be glad to meet with legislative leaders and work out a compromise.

Two years after he began serving a Federal prison term for bank fraud, Michele Sindona is enmeshed in international investigations involving multimillion-dollar financial swindles, a mysterious right-wing political organization, murder and the underworld. Mr. Sindona once headed a $500 million financial empire. He was a financial adviser to the Vatican and sped to the world's financial capitals in a private jet. Now, at a Federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., he is a gaunt, grayhaired figure, clothed in a drab blue-denim uniform and sneakers. He snacks on apple juice with pretzels and broods about his financial ruin, his 25-year prison sentence in the United States and criminal charges pending against him in his native Italy.

''Selective'' tax increases are being weighed by Treasury Secretary Regan as projected budget deficits soar, an Administration official said. A source close to Mr. Regan said the Secretary is now skeptical about the Administration's ability to make further cuts in nonmilitary spending. (Page A1.)