What was going on when I was born?

The United States has been conferring with the Lebanese Government about using military force against a rocket battery manned by pro-Iranian Lebanese forces that threaten Marine positions, American officials said today. They said the rapid-fire Soviet-made rocket battery had been moved through East Beirut and was believed to be in position to be used against the marines at Beirut airport. The Marine contingent suffered more than 230 dead from a truck-bomb explosion on Oct. 23 in its headquarters at the airport. American officials assume the attack was planned by Iran with Syrian help.

Reawakening memories of the days when three future pro stars - William Andrews, James Brooks and Joe Cribbs - played in the same backfield, the Auburn Tigers' 1983 backfield of Tommie Agee, Lionel James and Bo Jackson rolled for 439 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns today in a 35-23 victory over Maryland. The best collective performance by Andrews, Brooks and Cribbs when they played at Auburn was 300 yards in a 33-14 victory over Georgia in 1977. But as the last few seconds in this game today ticked away, the sellout crowd of 75,600 was chanting ''A-gee . . . A-gee . . . A-gee'' in appreciation of the 219-yard rushing afternoon turned in by this 5-foot-11-inch, 210- pound freshman fullback from Maplesville, Ala. He got a chance to start this season when the Tigers' No. 1 fullback, Greg Pratt, collapsed and died from heat stroke after a pre-season conditioning drill.

There are but a handful of neighborhoods left within the city where grand old homes still sit on parcels of land for which the term ''grounds'' applies. Among them is the Riverdale section of the Bronx, long known as the borough's Gold Coast.

HAVANA HAVING watched the revolution it had nurtured in Grenada collapse under internal divisions and then get swept aside by the American invasion, the Cuban Government last week turned its attention to containing the damage to its prestige and influence. Havana seemed to be seeking to portray itself as a country whose stake in Grenada, aside from the safety of its citizens there, was limited - that it could afford to be unconcerned about events on the island save as evidence of the ''imperialist Yankee aggression'' it says is threatening the Caribbean and Central America. While the United States was barring reporters from Grenada, Fidel Castro invited the foreign press to Havana en masse. He deluged reporters with daily communiques, news conferences, and copies of usually secret, low-key diplomatic notes exchanged with the Reagan Administration.

TRENTON VOTERS will face an array of eight ballot questions on Tuesday, including three calling for authorization to issue $320 million in bonds to acquire land for recreation and conservation purposes, to protect the shore and to repair and improve bridges. The referendum items also include proposals calling for additional projects and studies to be paid for with the proceeds of the $350 million Water Supply Bond Act of 1981, and to refinance previously approved bond issues where there would be a saving in debt-service charges. Voters also are being asked to: - Authorize the revamping of the state's judicial system by creating a separate Family Court within the Superior Court to handle juvenile and domestic-relations matters. - Change a constututional provision that requires the Governor to act on legislation within 10 days before the end of a two-year legislative session. The measure would give the Governor seven days after the close of the session to deal with legislation approved by both houses.

TO venture capital firms in mid-1982, the financing deal for the Osborne Computer Corporation was an offer they simply couldn't refuse. Barely 12 months after introducing the world's first portable computer, Osborne's sales hit a sizzling $70-million- a-year clip. At the helm was the charismatic British computer whiz Adam Osborne, and sitting in the watchdog role as chairman was Jack L. Melchor, a respected venture capitalist whose string of successful technology investments in Silicon Valley was practically without equal. And now Osborne Computer had decided to give up l8 percent of its ownership to raise 0 million from private investors to stoke the furnace further. There was even talk that investment bankers would be creating a public market for Osborne's stock within a matter of months.

Riding despite a broken collarbone, Leslie Burr swept to three separate victories with one breathtaking ride last night at Madison Square Garden. By piloting Albany through a stunningly fast jumpoff round to first place in the National Horse Show's $25,000 Mercedes Grand Prix, Miss Burr not only won that class, the final Grand Prix on the 30-event circuit this year. She also wrapped up the Grand Prix rider-of-the-year award - the one she had wanted so badly that after breaking her collarbone in a riding fall 18 days ago, she decided to strap a special harness around her shoulders and compete anyway. And Albany's victory vaulted him past Katie Monahan's horse, Noren, for the Grand Prix horse-of-the-year award. That is based on prize money, and with the $7,500 first prize last night, Albany finished the season with $42,372, to $37,353 for Noren. Miss Monahan, who had trailed Miss Burr by only 9 points in the rider-of-the- year standing, did not place in last night's Grand Prix and finished second for the year to Miss Burr.

WHEN he was a youngster in Sunday school, John Ahrens thought of Martin Luther as ''this big fat guy who nailed some documents on a church door.'' Later, in a college humanities class, he came to regard the Christian reformer as an admirable but austere figure. Now, Mr. Ahrens is portraying Luther in a documentary musical, and his views of the man have changed once more: ''His humanity has really come out. I don't know if I ever thought of him as a saint, but I didn't think of him as the beer-drinking, rough-and-tumble man he probably was.'' Mr. Ahrens, who lives in White Plains, has the title role in ''Martin Luther, Rebel Priest,'' a musical biography written by a Briarcliff resident, Carmino Ravosa. On Thursday, he and the nine other cast members will perform the show in Washington as part of Jubilee Week, a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Luther's birth in Germany on Nov. 10, 1483. The celebration begins today and includes a convocation at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, scholarly lectures and workshops and theatrical pageants.

When classes at Bennet Junior High School in Manchester, Conn., were recessed for the last time in the spring of 1981, the town was left with an architecturally significant but unneeded school building. Rather than sell the 79-year-old red-brick and slate-roofed school to a private concern, local officials formed a partnership with the Community Development Corporation of West Hartford to develop it as a 45-unit rental residence for the town's middle-income elderly citizens.

A senior Israeli official said here today that Israel was prepared to confront Syria to deter acts of aggression against Israeli troops in Lebanon by Damascus and its Palestinian allies. The official also said that if the Syrians thought the Israelis were preoccupied with their internal affairs and unwilling to fight, they were badly ''misreading'' the mood in Jerusalem. The official, David Kimche, the Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, spoke a day after a truck loaded with explosives crashed into an Israeli headquarters compound at Tyre in southern Lebanon. The known death toll rose from 39 to 60 today. Meets With Reporters Mr. Kimche has been in Geneva to observe the Lebanese peace conference, which was recessed Friday for 10 days. He made his remarks to a small group of reporters invited to meet with him this morning at the Israeli Consulate. There was no indication that the Israelis had conveyed the same message to Syria through the United States or other diplomatic channels.

PROVO, Utah JUST after the road bends to the right, leading to the Wasatch Mountains and the western edge of the Rockies, a sign marks the main entrance to the school. It says: ''Brigham Young University. Enter to Learn. Go Forth to Serve.'' Learning and serving is second nature at Brigham Young, which is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among the university's 26,963 students this semester, all but 582 are members of the church, or Mormons. They learn at school, but many go forth during and after their academic years to serve missions of at least 18 months on behalf of the church. These young men and women may be sent anywhere in the world, to live and work with the local people and teach them the tenets of the Mormon religion. Sean Covey, for example, a freshman who grew up in Provo and attended Provo High School, which is directly across the street from B.Y.U., plans to leave in January to serve an 18-month mission in Johannesburg. ''I was raised in the church,'' he said last week. ''It has always been my desire to serve a mission.''

WASHINGTON WITH the fighting in Grenada over and the American troops on their way home, the Reagan Administration was exulting last week over what it regarded as a major foreign policy success. Mr. Reagan, who had seemed beleagured and depressed by the death of the 230 marines in Lebanon and by his inability to make much headway in any diplomatic area, was buoyed by highly favorable polls and the muting of any significant criticism over Grenada. The marines and soldiers, who defeated some 750 Cubans and their Grenadian allies on the Caribbean island, are ''heroes of freedom,'' Mr. Reagan said. As for the United Nations, which voted 108 to 9 to condemn the invasion, Mr. Reagan said ''it didn't upset my breakfast at all.'' There has been criticism raised in the past two weeks about limits on press freedom, Administration credibiity, loss of allied support, an undue haste to use force, and abandonment of the ''high road'' in world diplomacy, but Mr. Reagan and his aides have swept them aside.