What was going on when I was born?

''The church is vital to the community. I'm not a member of the church, but it's important to a lot of people who are important to me.''

Gerard Bonomo, president of the Shiavone-Bonomo Corporation, watched a giant 6,000-horsepower shredder take a wrecked car and in a few seconds convert it into strands of scrap, which were then carried by conveyor to the top of a towering 60,000-ton pile. Crane operators at the yard, which lies almost directly across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center, were taking huge bites of metal from the pile and dumping it into the hold of a freighter, soon to head for Bangladesh. Finding overseas customers, Mr. Bonomo said, has meant survival for his company and the scrap industry as a whole. But it has also meant conflict with domestic steel mills over scrap supplies.

Artificial skin made from cowhide, shark cartilage and plastic has been successfully used by doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to replace skin destroyed by burns, the doctors reported yesterday. They said that the new skin successfully performed many of the functions of real skin. Unlike other substances that are used temporarily to cover the skin of burned patients, they said, the newly developed skin avoids the need for drugs that suppress the body's immune system when skin is taken from relatives and other people for skin grafts. Accordingly, the new skin does not increase the burn patient's chances of getting a fatal infection. Infections are a common cause of death among burn patients.

In a 1979 strategic planning meeting, the Hospital Corporation of America established the goal of doubling its revenues, which then totaled $797 million, within six years. Come September, when the giant Nashville-based hospital chain expects to complete its proposed acquisition of Hospital Affiliates International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the INA Corporation, the Hospital Corporation will have met its goal four years ahead of schedule. The merger, a cash and stock transaction valued at $650 million, will move the 13-year-old company into undisputed leadership of its industry, giving it the credibility it has sought since its inception. From the beginning, H.C.A.'s goal has been twofold: growth and social acceptance, both for itself and for the private sector of the health-care industry.

Consumer prices rose last month at an annual rate of 7.5 percent, the Labor Department reported. The increase was the smallest advance since July. The small advance reflected the slowing of energy price increases and an apparent imporovement in the inflation picture overall. (Page A1.) Adjustable-rate home loans were approved by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in a move that will significantly change the structure of the nation's home mortgage market. The absence of a limit on rate changes was criticized by consumer groups. (A1.)

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Oil said yesterday that his country considered Israel a more immediate threat than the Soviet Union. Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani told a standing-room-only audience at the Plaza Hotel that Saudi Arabia faced two threats: ''international Communism and Israel.'' He said that the first threat bolstered Saudi ties with the United States but that Israel was ''a threat to that friendship.'' ''The second is far more tangible and more in evidence than the first one, and an actual danger is obviously worse than a potential danger,'' he said.

The rise in the Consumer Price Index slowed in March with an advance of six-tenths of 1 percent, the smallest since last July, the Labor Department reported today. Most of the improvement reflected reduced increases in energy prices, which rose sharply in February after the Reagan Administration lifted oil price controls, but the latest inflation figures were even better than economists generally expected. And while month-to-month data can be erratic, today's report was consistent with two broader measures of prices published Monday showing single-digit rates of inflation for the whole first quarter of this year. If the March increase in the Consumer Price Index were to continue for 12 months, it would produce an annual rate of 7.5 percent.

International The U.S. curb on grain exports to the Soviet Union will be lifted by the Reagan Administration, probably today, despite State Department reservations, an Administration official said. The restriction was set in January 1980 by President Carter in retaliation for the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The official said lifting the embargo would make good a campaign promise to American farmers, and would reflect the easing of Soviet pressure on Poland. (Page A1, Columns 3-4.) Israel is a greater threat to Saudi Arabia than the Soviet Union, the Saudi Minister of Petroleum, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, said in a speech to the Foreign Policy Association in New York. He said that his country faced two threats: international Communism and Israel, and that the first reinforced ties with the United States but the second was ''a threat to that friendship.'' He also said that Saudi Arabia's friendship with the United States was ''tinged with some bitterness.'' (A1:2.)

In Business Day yesterday the short interest figures for some companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange were reported incorrectly. The correct figures are published on page D14.

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board approved regulations today that will permit federally chartered savings and loan associations to write mortgages with adjustable interest rates pegged to an index but with no limit on how far and how often the rates could rise or fall. The rates would move in line with a mutually agreed-upon index, such as Treasury bill rates. The bank board's action, which its new chairman, Richard T. Pratt, said ''will provide tremendous support'' for the thrift industry, exceeded industry expectations and was criticized by consumer representatives. Size of Payment Affected With an adjustable, or variable-rate, mortgage, the interest rate can rise or fall, affecting the size of the monthly payment. Under the traditional mortgage, the interest rate is fixed when the loan is issued, and the monthly payments never change.

AN extraordinary event is taking place at this very moment in New York, involving millions of visitors. It is the annual spring bird migration, and this weekend it starts a monthlong explosion in which scores of species in dazzling plumage may be seen in many locations in the metropolitan area. To get in on the action, you can strike out for some choice locations on your own or you can choose between several guided walks coming up this weekend and over the next few weeks, including several in Central Park and at the various installations of the Gateway National Recreation Area (which includes the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge). Such common birds as the early rising house finches, mockingbirds, bright red cardinals, blue jays, purple grackles, starlings and mourning doves already are numerous. But this is a season for birds that are out of the ordinary, such as the clapper rail, the little blue heron, the northern water thrush or the brown creeper, and a sharp eye (preferably with binoculars), some guidance and a good field guide can help you enter a world of song and color, sky and water, tree and flower that can make an ordinary spring a time of wonder and excitement.

A not-so-cool Giscard berates op- ponents A2 New rioting erupts in four Ulster cities A2 Lebanese militia head vows to avoid fights with U.N. forces A3 Friend of Sadat publishes mem- oirs and touches off uproar A3 Western group to seek revision of U.N. plan for Namibia A4 Mrs. Kirkpatrick urges U.N. to be realistic on Namibia A5 Around the World A6 Times honors Japanese employee in its Tokyo Bureau for 50 years A10 Government/Politics Growth of rural America poses new national policy questions A12 About Washington: Of zygotes, woman and abortion A16 Government statistical method being revised on terrorism A17 Williams says he had only sought to help friends on mine B1 Carey and Anderson agree to re- sume discussions on the budget B3 General Around the Nation A12 One man killed and two others trapped in suffolk water tower A1 Pulitzer Prize Board members consider changes in procedures A17 Social Security benefits going up 11.2 percent A18 Prices in New York area showed smallest increase in six months A18 Industry/Labor The News and The Times reach agreement with 2 unions B5 PARKING REGULATIONS Because the Eastern Orthodox churches observe Good Friday today, alternate-side parking is suspended. All other rules are in effect. Weekend Weekender Guide C1 Where to watch the birds re- turning in the spring migration C1 New Haven has a 343d-birthday party C30 Renaissance Festival at Christ Church C3 Theater: Broadway C2 ''Oedipus'' staged at BAM Theater C3 ''Waiting for Godot'' at Public C5 Dance: Dance-drama opens new Asia Society hall C11 Screen: Olivier film festival at Regency C6 At the Movies C8 ''The Hand,'' with Michael Caine C8 Cut version of ''Heaven's Gate'' reviewed C10 ''Simone Barbes ou la Vertu'' opens C10 Music: Sheila Jordan at Fat Tues- day's C4 Grover Washington and Sonny Rollins at Town Hall C4 Indiana students to give concert at Carnegie C15 Art: Arshile Gorky retrospective at Guggenheim C1 ''Boston Tradition'' at Whitney C18 Art People C19 Auctions C24 Books: Publishing C23 ''Singled Out'' by Richard Schickel reviewed C27 Restaurants C16 TV Weekend C31 Features/Notes Notes on People C28 Health/Science Advisers on genetic research seek a review of safety rules A19 General Dynamics executive named to head space agency A12 Style The Evening Hours B4 A triumphant show by Calvin Klein B4 For Bonwit's, a gala return B4 Obituaries Kimber Smith, Abstract Expres- sionist painter B6 Dr. Georg H. Sell, specialist in Sports Proud Appeal wins Blue Grass Stakes by 3 lengths A21 Watson says he is ready to return to Yankee lineup A21 Oilers' emotional play gaining re- spect of Islanders A21 Rangers blame themselves after loss to Blues in St. Louis A21 Bird is the Celtics' catalyst A21 Red Smith on target practice at Chicago A22 White Sox sweep Orioles A23 Edna Brown betters Penn Relays hurdles record in vain A25 P.G.A. looking toward change to 2 tours as early as 1984 A25 Vasquez says he regrets riding Cure The Blues A26 News Analysis James Feron on how Yonkers tries to cope with its problems B2 Editorials/Letters/Op-Ed Editorials A30 Why give away the granary? Return value 'Going around' a rights decision Letters A30 Flora Lewis: no place to look backward A31 Tom Wicker: the Court-stripping plan A31 J. S. Mehta: a case of deja vu in South Asia A31 Edmund J. Stubbing: a police pri- ority here A31