What was going on when I was born?

Sarah Torres says that ''they're an outrage''; Allie Regner thinks they're ''kind of fun''; Steve Saltiel calls them ''really stupid,'' and Wilmer Cintron says they're merely ''dumb.'' News that the city will place large vinyl decals depicting shutters, potted plants, Venetian blinds and window shades over the yawning windows of abandoned city-owned buildings that face the Cross Bronx Expressway has been the talk of the neighborhoods along this corridor in the Bronx this week. Residents of the Crotona Park neighborhood suggested that while the city was at it, why not expand the program to provide designer clothing decals to place over the tattered apparel of impoverished residents, large Mercedes-Benz decals to strap to their sides and decals of strip sirloins for them to eat. ''They should fix up the buildings,'' said Mr. Cintron, ''and have people living here, not decals.'' Decals are all the city can afford, said city officials, who explained that Federal ''deep funding'' programs for housing have been shut off and that there is no money for rehabilitation and not enough even to demolish most of the buildings.

House and Senate negotiators agreed today on a catch-all spending bill that is needed to keep parts of the Federal Government operating through Sept. 30. The compromise bill included an additional $100 million for education programs promoted by House Democrats, far below their original proposal of almost $1 billion. The White House had threatened to veto the bill if it included sizable amounts for extra domestic spending, but Senator Mark O. Hatfield, the Oregon Republican who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, expressed confidence today that President Reagan would sign the bill. The compromise clears away one of the major obstacles Congress must overcome as it tries to meet its goal of adjourning next Friday. However, the Senate remains snarled in a bitter dispute over a bill raising the national debt ceiling, and a resolution of that issue is still far away.

In a significant shift, private universities that once focused their student aid on scholarships for the poor are now including aid programs for middle-income, upper-middle-income and even wealthy students. The new efforts range from sophisticated advice on financial planning to ''prepayment'' plans in which students who put down four years of tuition their freshman year are protected against tuition increases. Most involve use of tax laws to reduce the overall cost of a college education. In the last few years many colleges around the country have taken isolated steps to attract middle-income and upper-income students, from subsidized loan programs to the growing number of scholarships awarded on the basis of academic achievement rather than financial need. What is new is that such programs are not only becoming much more plentiful and complex but, in some cases, are also becoming the foundation on which entire financial aid programs are being built, both economically and philosophically.

Excerpts from speech, page 6. SEOUL, South Korea, Saturday, Nov. 12 - President Reagan arrived in this tense nation today with a message denouncing North Korea and encouraging South Korea to pursue democratic change as the ''foundation of true security.'' ''Let every aggressor hear our words because Americans and Koreans speak with one voice,'' Mr. Reagan said in a speech to Parliament. ''People who are free will not be slaves, and freedom will not be lost in the Republic of Korea.''

The leaders of this predominantly Sunni Moslem city were divided today over whether Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, should leave Tripoli and eliminate the threat of heavy fighting here. Mayor Ashir Daye and some other local leaders said they wanted Mr. Arafat to go, and on Thursday a similar appeal was issued by Rashid Karami, a Moslem politician and former Prime Minister. But Sheik Saed Shaaban, a Moslem cleric who controls most of the city with a militia of 600 men, said Mr. Arafat should stay as long as he likes. Day of Little Fighting Tripoli and the surrounding area were mainly quiet today in the third day of a cease-fire between Syrian- backed Palestinian rebels and Arafat loyalists, although some artillery shell explosions and small-arms fire could be heard from the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi, Mr. Arafat's last stronghold in Lebanon. The leaders of Tripoli have been extremely cautious in what they say to or about Mr. Arafat because, they say privately, they fear reprisals from his followers. There is no central authority in Tripoli. The police do not venture into several areas, and the gun is the arbiter in many matters.

A Brazilian who sets off for the weekend in the wrong kind of car is turned away from service stations all day Saturday. And when he is allowed at the pump, fuel costs $2.37 a gallon, nearly $1 more than for the driver of the right kind of car. To buy the wrong car, an auto loan carries stiffer terms, and to keep it, the owner pays a higher road tax. The wrong car runs on gasoline and the right one on nearly pure alcohol. With policies like these, Brazil's military technocracy has bludgeoned the consumer into supporting its drive, begun eight years ago, to purge the automotive sector of imported oil.

Syria's Foreign Minister left Moscow today carrying an unambiguous message that the Soviet Union wants the internal struggle in the Palestine Liberation Organization stopped. A report by Tass, the official press agency, on two days of talks between the Syrian official, Abdel Halim Khaddam, and Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko said they had a ''thorough exchange of opinions'' on the situation in Lebanon ''as well as current developments in the north of that country, in the area of the city of Tripoli.'' Tripoli has been the scene of a strong assault against Yasir Arafat, the P.L.O. leader, by Syrian-backed rebels from his organization. A 'Pressing, Urgent Need' ''The Soviet side stressed the pressing, urgent need to overcome strife and restore unity in the ranks of the Palestinian resistance movement so that it will continue to be an active and effective force in the anti-imperialist struggle in the Middle East,'' Tass said.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, President Reagan's new special envoy to the Middle East, is flying to the region to confer with key leaders on how to foster a political settlement in Lebanon, Administration officials said today. For security reasons, the officials declined to provide Mr. Rumsfeld's itinerary. But he was supposed to leave Washington either tonight or Saturday and make some stops in Europe before going on to Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, they said. They said Mr. Rumsfeld wanted to use this first trip to get acquainted with the leaders and to learn the problems first hand. One official said he thought Mr. Rumsfeld's session with President Hafez al-Assad of Syria might turn out to be the most important because relations between Washington and Damascus are severely strained. In the last two days, the Syrian radio has said that Syrian gunners fired at Navy F-14 planes flying near Beirut.

Argentines call it el Cordobazo, the big Cordoba blow, accenting how this interior city is known as the nation's center of revolt. It was in Cordoba, the country's second largest city, where popular uprisings in 1955 and 1969 led to the overthrow of two Governments; where three years ago local military garrisons went on the march in a failed mutiny, and where the revolutionary Ernesto (Che) Guevara was raised. It was also in Cordoba in late October that Raul Alfonsin, now the President- elect, led a civic revolution, handing the long dominant Peronist party its first election defeat in nearly 40 years. Peronists here conceded just two hours after the polls closed; it was the first sign that a major political upset was in the making. Mr. Alfonsin went on to win 52 percent of the nation's vote and 60 percent of Cordoba's.

The Secret Service began providing protection to the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Thursday, more than two and a half months before the seven other candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination are scheduled to receive protection. The action came after a written formal request for protection was made Thursday to Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan by Preston Love, the Jackson for President campaign manager. Neither spokesmen for the Secret Service, which is part of the Treasury Department, nor for the Jackson campaign would say precisely why the protection was sought and provided. But in a speech Thursday, the candidate said that threats directed at him had increased since he officially announced his candidacy Nov. 3.

Representatives of Lebanon's warring factions adjourned today after a week of meetings that produced proposals for legal, political and electoral changes. The delegates said they would take the proposals to the leaders of the factions for discussion before a second round of the national reconciliation conference, which is expected to start here within a week.

Jordanian security authorities in Amman have defused another time bomb, the second in 24 hours. The Interior Ministry said today that a suitcase packed with 25 pounds of explosives was spotted in a vacant lot near the Chinese Embassy. On Wednesday authorities defused a 12.5-pound bomb near the Saudi Arabian Airlines office in Amman.