What was going on when I was born?

American communities, trying to deal with the effects of a technology that has moved the pornographic movie from the back street to the shopping mall and corner store, have begun to prosecute shopkeepers who rent videocassettes of sexually explicit films. The owners of two shops here, Arizona Home Video and Arizona Video Cassettes, face obscenity charges lodged by Maricopa County. They are charged with offering rental copies of movies such as ''Desires for Men,'' ''Divine Atrocities'' and ''800 Fantasy Lane'' along with such standard Hollywood productions as ''On Golden Pond,'' ''Patton'' and ''Police Academy.'' Officials in Cincinnati, Memphis and other communities have also acted to limit the availability of such films at rental outlets. Little Effort in New York In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut there has been no widespread effort against the shops.

Negotiators for scores of New York City's largest hotels and 14,000 striking employees yesterday agreed to resume contract talks today after a weekend of noisy picketing, disrupted hotel services and inconvenience for thousands of guests. There were no reports of widespread cancellations by tourists or changes in any of the hundreds of conventions, trade shows and balls scheduled this week. But the full impact of the walkout was not expected to be felt until the start of the business week today. Union and management officials expressed hope for a quick settlement, but each warned that hard bargaining lay ahead and that a failure to compromise would intensify losses and prolong hardships in the city's first major hotel strike in nearly a half-century.

The number of savings and loan associations that are effectively bankrupt - but still open - has increased fivefold since 1981, to more than 400, and industry leaders and Government regulators expect most will be forced to close or merge. Moreover, another 400 thrift units whose assets barely exceed their liabilities will also have a hard time surviving. In all, perhaps one-third of the 3,150 federally insured savings and loan associations now open are likely to disappear by the end of the decade, some experts estimate. Depositors should not be hurt, because the United States Government stands behind the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation -the agency that insures the deposits up to $100,000 each. The effect of the casualties will be most acutely felt by the F.S.L.I.C., whose pool of $4.7 billion in usable assets could easily be exhausted if a large thrift unit were liquidated, regulators say.

When Laura Hurwitt opened her letter of acceptance from the College of Wooster in Ohio last month, she found that she had been offered an unsolicited scholarship of $1,000 a year. To her father, who heads the breakfast foods division of General Foods, it struck a familiar chord. ''It reminded me of how we give out coupons good for 25 cents on the next purchase of Post Raisin Bran,'' said David F. Hurwitt, who lives in Darien, Conn. ''Laura was offered a 10 percent discount on a college education.'' The Hurwitts' experience was an outgrowth of major changes that economists say are blurring pricing policy differences between higher education and other extremely competitive industries such as the automobile industry or the airline industry.

It was a family affair, more or less. Randall Carlisle was tiptoeing across what was left of the roof of his parents' house. His father, Richard, was hunting for nails. His mother, Carole, was serving cold drinks in the front yard. Her brother-in-law, Tom Cummins, was on the scene despite a bandaged knee. And Jim Bellando arrived with a tarpaulin to cover the hole left after half the roof had been blown off.

Oil industry analysts expect official North Sea oil prices to drop by between $1 and $1.40 a barrel this week. But they expressed doubt that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would resort to general price cuts of its own immediately. They added, however, that OPEC might need to do so if demand remained weak this summer. A North Sea price cut is seen as inevitable in light of the decision taken by both the British and Norwegian Governments during the winter to let North Sea prices follow spot market trends. ''What we will see is a reflection of what already happened,'' said Richard Saville, who follows the industry for the stockbroking firm of Phillips & Drew.

President Reagan's new tax plan is being widely discussed throughout the nation, but proposals to revise the tax code and tighten loopholes are hardly new. ''The time has come'' for tax reform, President Kennedy declared in 1961, and the last two dozen years have seen many attempts to change the tax code. Most recently, President Carter pledged a revision, calling the tax system ''a disgrace to the human race.'' The Reagan plan stands apart from earlier attempts, however, because of the vigor with which the President is pursuing change and the comprehensive nature of his proposal. His would be the most complete overhaul of the tax system since World War II. In pursuit of this, Mr. Reagan is guided not only by the traditional grounds for tax reform, such as simplicity and fairness, but also by the rise of supply-side economics, with its predictions that people will work harder as tax rates drop. Following are answers to some of the questions people have been asking about Mr. Reagan's plan: Q. Does the brouhaha really matter? Will the plan ever become law?

MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1985 International Greece's Socialists won a clear victory over their conservative challengers in the general elections Sunday, but their margin was somewhat reduced. Returns from 9,928 of Greece's 14,738 districts put the Socialist share of the vote at 46.45 percent, down from the 48.06 percent with which the party, led by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, formed Greece's first leftist Government in 1981. The conservative New Democracy Party received 40.56 percent of the vote, an improvement from its 1981 total of 35.86 percent. [Page A1, Column 6.] Israeli backing for U.S. talks with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation was sought by Secretary of State George P. Shultz in a message to Prime Minister Shimon Peres, State Department officials said. [A1:4.]

Because of its relatively free regulatory environment, its record as Europe's most active stock market and its pre-eminence in European banking and finance, the City of London has a long lead in the race to dominate international securities trading in the European time zone. Whether Britain's financial center retains that lead could depend to a large extent on the results of a vote Tuesday and Wednesday on rules affecting the ownership of London's Stock Exchange and firms that do business there. The nearly 4,500 brokers and traders who own the exchange will be asked by their Governing Council to clear the way for shifting the ownership of the exchange from individuals to firms, and to allow outsiders to own member firms. Global Impact Leaders of the exchange see the proposed changes as key steps in a revolution in securities dealing here that will have global impact. Without the proposed changes and others related to them, however, the trading could move off the stock exchange and, eventually, away from the City - London's financial district.

COME springtime, the racing world's attention usually turns to New York, where the top horses have returned from winter vacations and the major events await. So far this year, though, the headlines have been coming from across the Hudson River. The opening of Garden State Park and Spend a Buck's historic exploits there have made New Jersey the talk of the tracks, and relegated the Belmont Stakes in New York next Saturday to an anticlimacic event. Racetrackers return from visiting the new Garden State, a sparkling plant that is being aggressively promoted, and wonder why there seems to be no similar energy and innovation in New York, long the unchallenged kingpin of American racing. About the only visible new thing in New York racing these days is a series of television commercials promoting Aque-duct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, the tracks operated by the nonprofit New York Racing Association. In the commercials, Gerald McKeon, the former accountant who is now the N.Y.R.A.'s president, tries to woo bettors by saying that his job ''is to put money in your pockets,'' and explaining how much money ''he'' gives away every day.

A picture caption in Metropolitan Report Saturday misidentified an official attending a reopening ceremony at a day care center in the Bronx. City Councilman Michael DeMarco was at the top right. In front of him, waving, was Stanley Simon, Borough President of the Bronx.

The Generals confirmed today that Doug Flutie suffered a broken left collarbone in Saturday night's 17-7 victory over the Memphis Showboats. The prognosis by the team's orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mark Schottenfeld, was that Flutie would be able to play again in four to six weeks. At best, that meant he would be available for the playoffs, which begin the weekend of June 30. There is no chance, said Dr. Schottenfeld, that he can play before.