What was going on when I was born?

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1983 The Economy The House voted down an attempt to bring an $8 billion tax bill to the floor, as lawmakers conceded that they would not adopt any deficit reduction measures before adjournment. (Page A1.) Housing starts fell 3.8 percent in October, depressed by a decline in new, single-family homes, the Commerce Department said. The modest October decline, after one of 12.2 percent in September, indicates housing starts have stabilized, officials said. (D1.)

Computers are transforming the telephone industry workplace into what some experts call the office of the future. The companies praise the changes, saying they improve customer service and increase productivity. But union officials and many workers say the changes are often detrimental to employees, fostering work speedups, extensive monitoring and loss of jobs. ''You've got to meet the bogey,'' said Ann Crump, a union official in Milwaukee, referring to the time limit, usually about 30 seconds, that telephone operators are allotted for each call. ''You can be as little as two seconds off and be unsatisfactory.''

Greyhound buses began rolling again yesterday, but they carried few passengers through cordons of strikers around the country. Pickets, upset by the company's decision to replace them, demonstrated at Greyhound terminals and taunted people who crossed their lines to buy tickets. In some places they surrounded buses, beat on the sides, bent rear-view mirrors and tried to stop buses from moving. Strikers clashed with police officers trying to preserve order and open the way for the buses. More than 100 arrests and half a dozen injuries were reported.

T is nearly four months since the South Street Seaport celebrated its renaissance with an opening as lavish as the debut of a world's fair. Many thousands have visited the Seaport every sunny day since, But will the throngs love the flavor that evokes the busy mercantile quarter of more than a century ago in November and December as they did in July and August? There are 5,000 or 6,000 who come to the Seaport each week to cast an affirmative vote. As the days grow shorter and colder, the Seaport has completed almost everything that it had planned in those early hectic days. The escalator to the second floor of the Fulton Market building is now running. And the second floor, which was then not ready, is now humming with dozens of food vendors. The lovely restaurant on the third floor is open. Stores that opened with empty shelves are now fully stocked. The multi-everything movie that was still being assembled is now overwhelming audiences with a high- decibel panoramic production. One may stroll through the Seaport blocks with one foot in the historic past and one foot in a commercial present, from tall ships tethered to East River piers at Fulton Street to boutiques selling tourist T-shirts. There is some uncertainty about how the Seaport will establish itself in the life of the city, how it will fit into a New York that has many competing attractions.

Excerpts from opinions, page B4. A Federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a magazine had not violated the copyright laws by printing information from a book of memoirs by former President Gerald R. Ford. The book's publishers sued the magazine, The Nation, for printing an article that used material from the book manuscript shortly before it was published in 1979. The ruling yesterday overturned a district court decision in favor of the book publishers, Harper & Row and the Reader's Digest Association.

After months of parliamentary impasse, the Senate approved today a compromise bill that would authorize the United States to commit an additional $8.4 billion to the International Monetary Fund. The Senate, on a 67-to-30 vote, sent the legislation back to the House, which had approved, with great reluctance, a different I.M.F. bill earlier this year. The Senate-passed version was part of a larger legislative deal negotiated over several weeks among House Democrats, the Senate Republican leadership and the Administration. One of the most politically sensitive aspects of the I.M.F. bill was the Senate-approved language that would let the United States support fund loans to South Africa under certain tightly defined conditions; the House bill includes a broad prohibition on such loans.

P.L.O. rebels tightened their grip on a camp near Tripoli that was Yasir Arafat's stronghold. Page A7. BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 17 - French warplanes today attacked installations in central Lebanon belonging to pro-Iranian Shiite Moslem militiamen, and Lebanese officials said there had been heavy damage. The Moslem militiamen are suspected of involvement in recent truck- bomb attacks against French, American and Israeli forces in Lebanon. There were initial indications that casualties on the ground had been heavy, but this could not be immediately confirmed.

Now that Israel and France have attacked the pro-Iranian group that is believed responsible for the terrorist attacks on their troops and the American marines in Lebanon, the time has come for the Reagan Administration to decide whether it will do the same, high-ranking officials said today. The White House vowed at the time the 239 servicemen were killed Oct. 23 that those responsible would be punished. Since then the United States has increased its strength in the eastern Mediterranean to some 40 ships, including 3 carrier task forces with 300 planes. Reportedly No Decision Administration officials said there would be more than enough firepower if the decision were made to carry out the threat to retaliate. But they said the decision was still being considered even though one had to be made soon.

Friday MUSICIANS SALUTE MONK The late pianist and composer Thelonious Monk often used an expression - ''two is one'' - by which, Motoe Shiratori explains, Mr. Monk defined the ''unity inherent in jazz.'' Miss Shiratori is producing a concert tribute to Monk called ''Two Is One'' tonight at 8 at Town Hall, 123 West 43d Street. Part of the bill will feature the pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, also known as Dollar Brand, and Carlos Ward, alto saxophonist and flutist. The program's other aspect includes two men who worked with Monk, the tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse and the drummer Ben Riley, who form the quartet Sphere with Buster Williams, bassist, and Kenny Barron, pianist. Admission is $8 to $15. Information: 840-2824 (box office). SUPER CRAFTS SHOW ON L.I. More than 800 artisans will offer their works, and some will show their skills, today through Sunday at an event billed as the largest craft show on the East Coast: the ninth Harvest Crafts Festival at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, L.I. For instance, there will be demonstrations of pottery, jewelry and candlemaking, pewter smithing, woodcarving, clay sculpture and glassblowing. The festival is on from 6 to 10 tonight, 11 A.M. to 10 P.M. tomorrow and 11 to 7 on Sunday. Admission: $3.50 ($1.50 for children, free for under-6's). On Hempstead Turnpike, off Exit M4 of the Meadowbrook Parkway. Information: (516) 794-9497. TRIBAL ARTS CELEBRATION

Excerpts from ruling, page B5. UNIONDALE, L.I. Nov.17 - A Federal District Court judge yesterday denied the Federal Government's request to examine the medical records of a severely handicapped infant under care at a Long Island Hospital. The judge, Leonard D. Wexler, in dismissing the case, rejected the Government's contention that University Hosptial at Stony Brook had discriminated against the 36-day-old girl. ''The papers submitted to the court demonstrate conclusively that the decision of the parents to refuse consent to the surgical procedure was a reasonable one based on due consideration of the medical options available and on a genuine concern for the best interests of the child,'' the judge said.

A desire named Streetcar is stirring on 42d Street these days, as city officials and the 42d Street Development Corporation look into the feasibility of restoring trolley service to the renascent street. The vision of brightly colored trolley cars shuttling back and forth from the Hudson River to the East River, with perhaps a spur or some other link to the Convention Center at 34th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, is particularly attractive to the people who are redeveloping 42d Street. It is also endearing to history buffs and people old enough to remember the old 42d Street trolley line, which closed in 1946. ''The question is what will it do to traffic on 42d Street,'' said Mayor Koch. ''If it's do-able in terms of traffic flow, then I'm absolutely for it. If it will impede the traffic flow, then I will just remember the old trolley fondly.''

A decline in construction of single- family homes helped push housing starts down 3.8 percent last month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.61 million, the Commerce Department reported today. The modest October decline, compared with a September drop of 12.2 percent, indicates that starts on new housing construction seem to have stabilized, Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige said. Starts had dropped from an annual rate of more than 1.9 million in August to 1.67 million in September.