January 26, 1986

JULIUS ADAMS was worried the other night. His mother, whom he brought in from Macon, Ga., to see him play in the final game of his career, was back in her hotel room, ill with the flu. Yet Adams attempted to keep up his spirits, and those around him - a role he has taken on as the Patriots' Grand Old Man, at 37 the oldest defensive lineman in the National Football League. So when two grown men came up to him in the hotel lobby and one said, ''For my son, Paul - he'd deeply appreciate it,'' Adams produced an autograph. And then he was asked for another one.

The Greater New York International Automobile Show runs through Feb. 2 at the New York Coliseum, Columbus Circle (59th Street, Broadway and Eighth Avenue), from 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. today and next Sunday and from 11 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. weekdays and Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults and $3 for children 12 and under.

JOURNALS 1939-1983 By Stephen Spender. Edited by John Goldsmith. Illustrated. 510 pp. New York: Random House. $19.95. COLLECTED POEMS 1928-1985 By Stephen Spender. 204 pp. New York: Random House. $19.95. IN February 1960 Stephen Spender - Sir Stephen Spender since 1983 - was in Moscow, as he has been all over the world, on a cultural visit. There he was called on by the former English diplomat Guy Burgess, who had fled to Russia in 1951 after being exposed as a Soviet agent. Burgess was living near the still elegant National Hotel, where Mr. Spender was staying, and was in great good humor despite the suspected microphone to which he pointed in the ceiling of the hotel room as they talked. Burgess likened ''solid and expanding'' Russia to England in 1860, ''my favourite time in history, and no one feels frightened.''

After watching Walter Berry score 35 points against Duke earlier this season, Bob Ferry, the general manager of the Washington Bullets, marveled that ''when there's a big shot to be made, he makes it; if there's a key shot to be blocked, he blocks it; if there's a play to be made on the boards, he gets the offensive rebound. Whenever it's time to come through, he's there. That's greatness.'' Berry did all that and more today as he scored 34 points and brought St. John's from a 15-point deficit to a 68-67 victory over Pittsburgh before a capacity crowd of 6,798 at Fitzgerald Field House.

MARCIA - I've been on kidney dialysis most of my adult life, and I really don't want to continue with it. Cy - If I have to stand over you 24 hours a day, you're going to keep fighting. Where there's life, there's hope. Marcia - I've been stuck, evaluated, poked, sliced and shrunk. You name it, I've had it. The only hope I have for my future is that it will be over.