What was going on when I was born?

The danger of fire, which has been said to be a fear of the past at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, returned here today. The anger and annoyance of controversy, which had never left, lingered in the garage area. Bobby Unser's smile was a reminder of his third victory in the Indianapolis 500. The burn marks on the left arm of his racing suit were a reminder of the danger. The burn marks were from a minor fire in his Penske-Cosworth, just one of the flames that appeared today. Two larger fires had Danny Ongais and Rick Mears in the hospital. After the race, Unser's wife, Marcia, sat next to the winner and took deep breaths. Her husband became the third racer in three years to start from the pole position and win the race, finishing 5.3 seconds ahead of Mario Andretti's Wildcat-Cosworth. The unofficial finish was the secondsmallest margin of victory in 65 Indy 500's.

Large losses are forcing the reshaping of savings institutions, and the changes are expected to have a wide impact on future mortgages and home ownership. Mortgages are expected to be risky, rising and falling with interest rates, and thrift institutions could become more like banks and brokerage houses. (Page A1.)

Under Federal law, Memorial Day will be observed today. Following are holiday schedules: Parking - Alternate-side regulations suspended; Sunday rules in effect.

Oil ministers representing several key OPEC members called today for a freeze in oil prices and substantial reductions in crude oil output. They made their pleas on the eve of what promises to be one of the most acrimonious meetings of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the group was formed 21 years ago. But Saudi Arabia, the target of the call for production cuts, remained silent on its intentions despite the growing pressure. The meeting comes at a time when the 13 OPEC members seem more deeply divided than ever over the question of what price to charge for the 25 million barrels of oil they produce each day. This output accounts for about 40 percent of the world's supply and about 80 percent of oil traded internationally.

The economy's surprising strength in the first quarter is prompting economists to question a durable tenet of economic policy: that extremely high interest rates will slow business activity quickly. Moreover, with the economy more resilient than either private or Government economists had expected, the Reagan Administration's proposal to lower personal income tax rates is being viewed with increasing skepticism. The tax plan, economists worry, might prove to be unneeded stimulation that could worsen inflation by enlarging the Federal budget deficit. ''The economic strength certainly calls into question the wisdom of such a policy at this time,'' said Irwin L. Kellner, senior vice president and chief economist of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company.

For the businessman bored with the daily routine, El Salvador presents some entrepreneurial challenges. Warehouses and factories are favorite targets of guerrilla firebombings, trucks are regularly hijacked, stores are looted and workers are intimidated from showing up for the job. Extortion payments known as ''war taxes'' can be demanded by both sides, a curfew limits double-shift production, public utilities are erratic, credit and insurance no longer exist, customers demand cash in advance and owners and managers are subject to kidnapping, assassination or simply the unnerving threat of both. The company run by one of the directors of the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists has had its executives held hostage, 17 of its trucks destroyed and one of its routemen held up 159 times in the past 15 months. Thirty-six well-armed security men patrol a plant near the old city airport. Companies have taken to paying workers above-scale wages, selling them food and necessities in company dispensaries at cost, financing household purchases and providing medical care in order to maintain their loyalty.

George Steinbrenner, the Yankee owner, watched his team's pitching and defense crumble yesterday in a 12-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians and said he was embarrassed that 53,874 spectators ''paid hard-earned dough to see that fiasco.'' Steinbrenner was critical of several Yankees, especially Reggie Jackson, who is hitting .197 and who mishandled two balls in right field on Saturday. The owner said that if the team does not recover in a three-game series at Baltimore that begins tonight, ''there will be hell to pay.'' ''Until then, I won't label anybody because they're labeling themselves,'' Steinbrenner said. ''But if they go down there and embarrass New York, you'll hear from me.

By MIKE THARP TOKYO, May 11 - Japanese aluminum refiners, already hurt by high energy costs and sluggish domestic demand, are complaining that cheaper American imports have also damaged their beleaguered industry. ''In 1978 and 1979 we scrapped a half million tons of capacity and we are now operating (industry-wide) at 60 percent of the 1.1 million ton capacity,'' said Tatsuro Oya of the economic research department of Sumitomo Light Metal Industries. ''This was partly due to depressed demand but mainly due to the flood of imports.'' American producers sent their share of total Japanese aluminum imports to 36.5 percent last year, up from 15 percent in 1979 and only 5.8 percent of total imports by Japan in 1978. In the fiscal year that ended March 31, 1980, Japan imported about 300,000 tons of aluminum ingots and semifabricated products from the U.S., more than three times the volume of the previous year.

There were letters and telegrams and, of course, long-distance telephone calls. Sometimes, the calls came so frequently, one after another, that Kelly Tripucka hardly had time to change clothes in his room. ''They kept on calling and calling,'' Tripucka said. ''They were very persistent. I kind of related it to the whole world of recruiting, like when I was making a decision on going to college. I didn't like that part of life. Four years later, it happened all over again. This time, the recruiters were agents, and I didn't like that either.'' At a time when college basketball players can command lucrative long-term contracts even before their class will be graduated, selecting an agent or business representative has become as competitive as the choice of a college.

Five employees of WABC-TV, including the program director, the station's executive producer and a reporter, Ellen Fleysher, have been asked to resign as a result of the use of bogus letters on local viewer-participation programs. Bill Fyffe, the general manager of WABC-TV, said in an apologetic statement broadcast Saturday night that five station employees ''accepted the opportunity to resign or were terminated'' after a two-month investigation into the use of the false letters and that 10 others had been reprimanded. Mr. Fyffe and station spokesmen declined to identify the employees or to elaborate on the statement. However, persons familiar with the station's investigation said yesterday that the five included Charles B. Gingold, program manager; Jim Lutton, executive producer; Clay Cole, former producer of a canceled program, ''Airmail Special,'' and Miss Fleysher, a WABC-TV reporter and co-anchor of the station's weekend news broadcasts.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin charged today that Soviet military advisers were accompanying Syrian Army units into Lebanon. ''The Syrians have 3,600 tanks,'' Mr. Begin said, ''concentrated with Soviet advisers who go together with Syrian units into Lebanon.'' The fleeting remark was contained in a speech to a convention of Israeli building contractors in Tel Aviv. Mr. Begin did not specifically say that there were Soviet advisers in Lebanon now. But an aide to the Prime Minister said later that ''wherever big units of the Syrian Army go, with tanks and heavy artillery, there are Soviet advisers with them.''

Police commandos assaulted a bank headquarters here last night held by right-wing terrorists and freed several scores of hostages. One terrorist was reported to have been killed. Screaming hostages, some with their hands raised in terror, spilled into the broad plaza in front of the five-story Banco Central building as the police commandos fired to hold the terrorists at bay. ''Don't shoot!'' shouted one of the hostages as the assault began. ''They're going to kill us all!''