DALLAS — For Mark Berry, one of life’s sweetest moments started with a bottle of cold grape soda.

It was December 1978, and Berry, then 10 years old, had just received his first bicycle — a shiny Huffy. Riding through an under-construction Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Berry remembers it being empty. He called it his concrete jungle.

A few days after Christmas, as he came down the ramp, Berry ran through a pile of rocks and blew out a tire. While making the long walk home, he stumbled upon Dallas Fire Station 18.

That’s where he met firefighter Jerry “Zip” Crawford, a now-retired Dallas firefighter.

“This young kid comes riding up on a bicycle. Ten years old. He was hot and sweaty and I'm out in the front and he comes up to me and wants to know if he can have a drink of water,” Crawford rec

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