What are my chances of salvaging my old landline number?
I figured some teleco geniuses out here, so I figured I might give it a shot.
The house I grew up in is looking to get rid of it's landline, and thus it's phone number. This phone number is one of the small number I actually have memorized-making it super useful, because I am unlikely to memorize any additional numbers in my lifetime, and certainly no numbers will ever have the same nostalgic ring to them.
They're a different phone carrier, and a different state. The current owner would be happy to hand the number over. Is this type of transfer in the realm of possibility?
Well you don't say where you are from so I guess maybe.
Numbers are not tied physically to a phone line it is all logical links, but some countries do a regional boundaries for numbers for aggregation purposes. In Australia all numbers starting with 02 are in one state, where as all numbers beginning with 03 are in another.
What you can do is transfer the number to a SIP provider then you can use the number anywhere you like via a softphone client like Zoiper or GS Wave.
It depends on your area and providers. Check with your phone providers of the landline and of whatever line you have you'd like to move that number to and ask them about "porting" the number over.
If you're in the US, here's the FCC's page with more info. You can probably port the number to another landline, a mobile line, or even a software-based VOIP provider like Google Voice.