What was going on when I was born?

Federal regulators said today that customers of savings and loan associations withdrew a record $2.3 billion more than they deposited in March, but a Federal banking official cautioned against overstating the savings association industry's problems. ''The monthly flow of savings should not be confused with the underlying viability of the savings and loan industry,'' said Richard T. Pratt, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. The new report by the board, which monitors and regulates savings and loan associations, said the March figure of $2.3 billion broke the previous withdrawal record of $1.5 billion reported for July 1966 and April 1979.

The Erie County District Attorney, Edward C. Cosgrove, said yesterday that he would decide shortly, perhaps today, whether to seek an indictment against a 25-year-old white Army private listed as a suspect in the slaying of seven black men in Buffalo last year. As Federal agents and Buffalo detectives ran laboratory tests and sifted evidence in the case, the suspect, Joseph G. Christopher, remained in custody at Fort Benning, Ga., on charges of attempted murder in the stabbing of a black soldier there on Jan. 13. Ballistics tests were being conducted on dozens of bullets found at the private's Buffalo home and at a rural hunting camp owned by his family. Tests were also being run on other confiscated items, including several knives and a jacket and cap that appeared to be bloodstained.

Israeli air force jets struck targets in southern Lebanon today, and Lebanese authorities said that 15 people were killed and 30 wounded in the attacks. In Damascus tonight, a Syrian military spokesman said that Syrian fighter planes had shot down two Israeli jets and that one Syrian plane had been hit. In Tel Aviv, however, the Israeli military command said that all six of the planes that conducted raids on suspected Palestinian guerrilla posts in southern Lebanon had returned safely to their base. The Israeli spokesman denied that Syrian planes had engaged Israeli aircraft.

''Sure, I would move if I could find a job, but with what? Where are we going to go with no money?'' - Steve Ristoski, a laid-off automobile worker. (A1:2.)

With all avenues of compromise apparently closed, Northern Ireland's Roman Catholic militants and the British Government are again at the brink of a possibly violent showdown. Their struggle, now more than a decade old, has been brought to a new intensity by Robert Sands, a 27-year-old member of the Irish Republican Army who was elected to Parliament while confined to the Maze Prison at Long Kesh outside Belfast. He is reported to be near death as the result of a 57-day hunger strike. In a preview of the trouble that is generally anticipated if Mr. Sands dies, hundreds of Catholics clashed with troops in Belfast today after it became clear that the intervention of the European Human Rights Commission had failed to end the hunger strike. Two members of the commission left the jail last night after seven hours, without having seen Mr. Sands.

Wall Street leaders appeared divided about the recent wave of brokerage house mergers as they gathered here today for the semiannual convention of the Securities Industry Association. Executives of large brokerage firms expressed cautious optimism about the Prudential Insurance Company's purchase of Bache Group Inc. and the American Express Company's bid to acquire Shearson Loeb Rhoades Inc. But most heads of smaller regional firms were sharply critical of such mergers. The move toward consolidation, most delegates agreed, portended a major reshaping of the way financial services are provided in America. ''It's too easy to say that these mergers will create a great delivery system for a set of yet-to-be-born products or already existing products that fit,'' said William J. Kneisel, a principal on the syndicate desk at Morgan Stanley & Company. ''What it's really going to mean in terms of financial services and new approaches is going to take a while to sort out.''

Charitable contributions to the country's 300,000 nonprofit organizations from individuals, foundations and corporations reached $47.74 billion, a record, last year, but that was still not enough to keep pace with inflation, according to the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel. The association warned, too, that the rise in contributions would not ease the anxiety of the organizations whose survival is threatened by the Reagan Administration's proposals for substantial cuts in their Federal financing. It said that even a significant increase in private resources was unlikely to offset those losses. ''The best we can hope is that philanthropy will increase its capacity enough to narrow the gap somewhat,'' said John J. Schwartz, president of the association, which is regarded as a leading authority on American philanthropic trends.

After two weeks of sensitive negotiations, the Transit Authority has agreed to let a team of private business executives try to improve the management of New York City's faltering subway and bus systems, but the authority has turned down the executives' offer of help in seven key areas. An initial two-month study by the executives group, the Economic Development Council, headed by David Rockefeller, described a sluggish and overstaffed transit headquarters with inadequate resources supporting the basic mechanical operations in the garages and on the lines. Since the report was made public early this month, the transit agency's president, John D. Simpson, has been meeting with council executives, and the first two members of a team of 20 business leaders are to arrive at the authority this week to begin a 12- to 18-month program of problem-solving and reorganization. 55 Management Areas Cited The report - prepared by six executives, led by Morris Dantzker, the council president - listed 55 areas it said were suffering from poor management. Mr. Simpson ruled out six of the seven to be excluded on the ground that the authority had already begun solving those problems. They involve financial audits, research and development, broken subway car doors, maintenance yard productivity and two transit police issues.

Most of the nation's major banking companies experienced relatively weak earnings in the first quarter, even though 12 of the 15 surveyed reported increases in their net operating earnings from a year earlier. ''The quality of earning power wasn't as good as it seemed at first blush,'' said Thomas H. Hanley, vice president and chief bank analyst at Salomon Brothers. Only seven of the 15 bank holding companies earned 50 cents or more on each $100 of average assets. Amid a 10 percent inflation rate, a big bank must achieve this level of profitability over the longer term if it is to maintain its share of its market, said Julian Lustig, a Citibank assistant vice president.

A picture caption in some editions of the Times on Saturday incorrectly identified a man with Governor Carey and Mayor Koch. He is Francis T. Purcell, the Nassau County Executive.

The Foreign Ministry, in a surprise announcement, said today that Bill Brock, the chief United States trade negotiator, would visit Japan later this week to discuss limiting Japanese auto exports to America. The announcement that Mr. Brock would arrive in Tokyo on Wednesday came as Naohiro Amaya, a top official of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, left for Washington to discuss the auto issue with United States officials. Washington and Tokyo are trying to reach agreement on limiting Japanese auto shipments to the United States before talks between President Reagan and Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki in Washington on May 7-8. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Suzuki is to meet tomorrow with Trade Minister Rokusuke Tanaka, Japanese Ambassador to Washington Yoshio Okawara, Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ito and other ministers here to consider the results of Mr. Tanaka's discussions with the Japanese auto industry's top executives Saturday on restraint of shipments to the United States.

Time and the money have run out for Steve Ristoski and for tens of thousands of other jobless automobile workers here. The generous unemployment benefits paid out by the state, the auto companies and the Federal Government were not designed for two years of depressed car making and widespread layoffs. Men and women who had learned patience from the cycles of the industry are learning that, this time, the jobs may never come back to the Detroit area. Automation and the shrinking size of cars mean that far fewer workers than before are needed to make each vehicle. And the growing dispersal of the auto industry to the Sun Belt and overseas has already left this city the ''Motor City'' in name only.