What was going on when I was born?

With their $275,000 stone Colonial home in Scarsdale unsold since they first placed it on the market in February, Noemi and Daniel Mattis suddenly found themselves in the enviable position of being able to choose between two offers a few weeks ago. They have since sold the house and are now off to live in Salt Lake City, as planned.

Air travel is still a pleasure to many people, but passengers increasingly recount tales of discomfort, much of it severe, and of difficulty in obtaining restitution. Here are some examples:

THE Legislature is expected to conduct hearings soon into the July 26 fire at the Brinley Inn in Bradley Beach in which 23 persons died.

THE Long Island tourist industry is booming this summer, with Islanders and off-Islanders flocking to the beaches in record numbers.

SUMMERTIME and the living is easy? Not for a growing num ber of people, according to family-relations experts. They say the economic downturn is leaving some county residents of all social classes and ethnic groups with fewer of the luxuries they have long been accus tomed to--luxuries such as a family vacation, summer camp for a child or a weekend away for parents.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2--The Senate Democratic leader, Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, in a sharp break with President Carter, today endorsed an "open" Democratic convention by urging Democrats to reject a rule that would bind delegates to vote for certain candidates.

MOSCOW, Aug. 2--An unidentified person was seen engulfed in flames on Red Square today in a mysterious incident just after noon as crowds lined up to visit Lenin's Mausoleum outside the Kremlin on the day before the closing ceremony of the Moscow Olympics.

FOR decades, the American economy has ridden up and down on business cycles. With each cycle, interest rates have soared, peaking at levels above those of the previous cycle. And when they have descended, it was not quite to the previous lows.

DETROIT, Aug. 2--Thomas Hearns left none of his power in a sauna bath this morning and captured the World Boxing Association welterweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of Pipino Cuevas of Mexico.

MOSCOW, Aug. 2--The thrill seemed gone, and the jab, which John Tate once described as a "steering wheel," no longer drove with authority. But Teofilo Stevenson still managed to win a third consecutive heavyweight boxing title today at the XXII Olympic Summer Games.

BOLOGNA, Italy, Aug. 2--An explosion demolished a wing of the central train station in this city in north-central Italy today, killing more than 80 people and injuring more than 200.

JERUSALEM, July 28--At dawn on every working day a remarkable migration takes place across the lines of ArabJewish hostility.