What was going on when I was born?

AT a museum where exhibit halls of mounted whales and caribou stand largely unchanged for decades, you might expect one week to blur indistinguishably into the next. That is rarely true at the American Museum of Natural History, and this weekend illustrates the case as the museum begins its commemoration of John James Audubon's 200th birthday and, at the same time, introduces an exhibition of Maya art pieces never before seen in the United States. This weekend, you could conceivably spend each day roving the museum's labyrinthine corridors, from one special event to another, and still not have time for the Hall of Early Mammals. You could start with the sixth-century ceramics and obsidian jewelry from ancient Maya ruins; catch the helium blizzards on one of Jupiter's satellites in a sky show at the Hayden Planetarium; hear an ode to Audubon with the music of birds, bees and bugs; view pictures of rare flora and fauna from Cerro de la Neblina in Venezuela, and close the weekend Sunday to the rumble of Brazilian jazz. The museum's outside walls and ionic columns haven't changed, but the place has come to life in a way that mirrors the renaissance of its neighborhood, and, indeed, museum officials are hoping the people hopscotching the nearby boutiques and restaurants on the Upper West Side will also rediscover the museum.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1985 Companies In an about-face, Storer accepted a $2.1 billion buyout offer from Kohlberg, Kravis. The cable television company rejected an initial bid just 72 hours earlier. The latest offer gives shareholders an equity position in the new concern that would be formed to run Storer. However, a dissident stockholder group said it would continue to seek control of the Storer board. [Page D1.] Federal regulators are considering a proposal to begin rescue efforts for ailing thrift institutions long before they need assistance from a Federal insurance fund. [D1.] The parent of Bell Savings of California reported big losses. [D1.] A tentative deal for Mead to buy Crown Zellerbach failed. Crown then tried but could not reach an accommodation with Sir James Goldsmith, who is bidding for it. Crown also announced a restructuring to split it into three units. [D1.] T. Boone Pickens's bid for Unocal was threatened by a preliminary court ruling. Earlier, Mr. Pickens said he would tender his Unocal stake to the company under a debt-swap offer it made Tuesday. But he said he remained determined to take over Unocal. [D6.] Chrysler earnings fell 28.1 percent in the first quarter, to $507.6 million, largely because of higher income tax payments. [D1.] Searle purchased 7.5 million of its shares from several Searle family trusts, for $388.1 million. [D1.

It was the disposable decade, an era of such high living that little-used things could be thrown away. Furniture was replaced every six months, cars were traded in as soon as new models arrived, and designer silks from Rue du Faubourg St.-Honore were worn only once. Now, for the first time, wealthy Saudis are beginning to feel the effects of a three-year recession that promises to cut deeper in the years to come. The source of the problem is painfully obvious: Oil production has plummeted from a high of 10 million barrels a day only four years ago to 4 million last year. This year it will fall even lower, to 3.85 million barrels a day.

Under this heading, The Times amplifies articles or rectifies what the editors consider significant lapses of fairness, balance or perspective. A television review on April 4 discussed a documentary about the popular Nigerian musician Fela made by French producers in 1982, when Nigeria was under civilian rule.

White House officials and a group of disgruntled Democrats met today in an attempt to revive President Reagan's request for aid to the Nicaraguan rebels. The Democrats, party moderates, expressed disappointment that a coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats combined Wednesday to kill a compromise aid package that some of them had helped draft over the last few weeks. ''I don't think the issue is over yet,'' said Representative Dave McCurdy, an Oklahoma Democrat, who said he met with White House officials today. ''Many of us are concerned about the development of a policy. Right now we don't have a policy.''

Another California thrift institution today reported large losses that may threaten its survival. The Bell National Corporation, parent of a rapidly growing thrift institution that invested heavily in Silicon Valley real estate in the last three years, said that it lost about $60 million in the fourth quarter. According to Miles A. Cobb, chairman and chief executive, the loss for all of 1984 was about $47 million. He said it all but wiped out the net worth of the company's principal subsidiary, the Bell Savings and Loan Association, which accounts for 90 percent of the parent's revenues. Federal regulations require thrift associations to maintain a net worth of 3 to 5 percent of liabilities, depending on the pace of deposit growth.

The Senate began debate today on a Federal budget that would reduce the deficit by $52 billion in 1986, but the Republican leadership put off a symbolic vote on the plan when it appeared it was short of the votes needed to win. Early in the day the Republicans had pushed for a vote on the plan endorsed by President Reagan in a television address Wednesday night, even if it meant they might lose. Democrats, who initially had pressed for a chance to have the Senate vote on their amendments to the plan first, made a surprise offer this evening to allow a vote on the Republican plan. But Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader, unexpectedly recessed the Senate, putting off the vote when it appeared he was short of the votes needed to win.

''The only way that I could figure they could improve upon Coca-Cola, one of life's most delightful elixirs, which studies prove will heal the sick and occasionally raise the dead, is to put rum or bourbon in it.'' - Lewis Grizzard, a writer and columnist in Atlanta, where Coke was invented 99 years ago. [A15:3.]

THE Metropolitan Opera has finished its season, and the New York City Opera doesn't start up for a couple of months. But hungry vocal aficionados need not despair: New York is not only the city that never sleeps; it is also the city that can't stop singing. This weekend, for example, you can find more opera here than most American cities see in a year. No less than a dozen troupes are offering presentations, and some of them look quite inviting. Don't expect grand productions - smaller troupes dish up ''Aida'' without elephants, ''La Boheme'' without vast panoramas of 19th-century Paris - but the singing and stagings are often very good, and you may get the chance to hear some rare material.

A majority in the House of Representatives, saying that President Reagan's planned visit to a German military cemetery ''threatens to have long and serious repercussions in the United States,'' urged Chancellor Helmut Kohl today to withdraw his invitation to the site. The letter, signed by 257 of the 435 House members, was presented to the West German Ambassador, Gunther van Well, by Representative Robert J. Mrazek, Democrat of Long Island. The letter said a visit to the Bitburg cemetery, which includes 49 SS soldiers among its 2,000 dead, would have ''the unintended effect of reopening painful wounds in the United States.'' Reagan's Stand Praised by Kohl In Bonn, Chancellor Kohl, speaking in a parliamentary debate, said President Reagan was a friend of the German people and had found himself in domestic difficulties because of the planned cemetery visit. But Mr. Kohl gave no hint that he would release the President from his commitment.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 1985 International Most House members oppose a visit to a German military cemetery planned by President Reagan. A total of 257 of the 435 Congressmen say that a visit to the Bitburg cemetery, where 49 SS soldiers were buried, ''threatens to have long and serious repercussions in the United States.'' In a letter, they asked Chancellor Helmut Kohl to withdraw his invitation to the site. [Page A1, Column 6.] Helmut Kohl praised the President as a friend of the German people for agreeing to lay a wreath next month at the military cemetery at Bitburg and gave no indication he intended to release Mr. Reagan from his commitment. Chancellor Kohl spoke in a debate in Parliament. [A10:3-6.]

A table in Sports Pages on Tuesday with an article about college athletic eligibility gave incorrect median graduation rates for 1977 freshmen as a whole. Each figure in the bottom line of the table, which was taken from a report prepared for the National Collegiate Athletic Association by Advanced Technology Inc., should have been moved one column to the right. The correct rates are 37 percent after four years, 50 percent after five and 55 percent after six.