Playing poorly

I knew it while it was happening but didn't really know what to do about it. Is it sometimes okay to just check, call all the way down?

Here's the situation: I had only been at my seat in the local American Legion game for half an orbit when I was dealt 85 offsuit in the small blind and limped into an unraised pot along with no less than seven other callers. The flop was 875. Turn 10. River King. Long story short, I check-call the entire way and take down a $100+ pot when the missed flush draw on the river put out a bluff that was too small to push the high pair and my two pair off the hand.

I wasn't proud of the way I played the hand, but with the texture of the board I was facing getting stacked on the first hand I played...

I felt like a fish but won the hand and the double up gave me chips to push people around as the night progressed.

Side bar: The game at the American Legion is a hoot! There is an eclectic mix of old timers with young bucks. There are two young players who sit wearing mirrored sunglasses behind the their $50 buy-in waiting for the WPT babes to pick them out to interview. The middle aged guys who are the WORST poker players ever discussing the merrits of calling a big raise with 72o, every time. Hysterical people watching!

I did have a moral delimma when I stacked a young kid (not a veteran) in a wheelchair. In my defense, he was betting into my nut flush and it was a very expensive wheelchair.