Stereo vs mono in garage band?

This may sound like a dumb question, I thought I knew about stereo vs mono all my life, but I don't. Even though I have been a full time professional musician all my life.
I just conected my new firepod to garage band 3. It works great.
1. But I am finding I can select channels 1&2 stereo, 3&4, 5&6, etc. However it won't let me activate the red record button on 2, 4, 6, etc since it tells me it's all ready chosen.
2. I understand I can simultaneously record 4 stereo tracks or 8 mono tracks
(5 and 10 if you include the line in on the back)
My problem is that the mics are mono. ( I don't have sereo mics) So when I select stereo am I really getting stereo? If not, can I record in mono and select stereo afterwards? Or duplicate the mono track and pan one slightly left or right. I know that is not true stereo but I can't really say why.
example problem: Upright piano with two mics, one near the bass end one near the high to middle. Does this need to take up 4 of my firepon inputs to have them be stereo? Can 1 mic be channel 1 and the other be channel 2?
Currently It won't let me unless they are selected as mono tracks.
Will someone please enlighten me?
thanks
Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

You only use the stereo settings for a stereo source. Your mics are not stereo, therefore you should select MONO. You will then get a track that you can pan anywhere in the stereo spectrum you like, which is what you really want. Once you are done recording several tracks, and mix them, panning them where you like them, the "mix" will be stereo. Your "tracks" should always be mono, unless you have something like a stereo keyboard.

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